
Marc Andreessen answers questions from Stripe Atlas founders - darwhy
https://stripe.com/blog/marc-andreessen-ama
======
bedros
"And so if a founder can’t navigate a network into a VC firm, it is unlikely
that founder has the skills to navigate the other networks required to succeed
in building a company"

So, as someone who's working on a startup at seed stage, outside silicon
valley (Socal), what Marc is saying does not make any sense; networking
requires time, and time is very valuable especially at seed stage; I would
rather work on developing the product and refine it for market fit, rather
trying to spend precious time on meeting with people to expand my network.

~~~
vonnik
I've heard many VCs say this. It's one of the few examples of Marc
demonstrating complacence, wrongheadedness and herdlike thinking in this
interview.

But it does point to an underlying truth: the VC market has not found a good
filter for startup quality beyond human curation. Irony, anyone? They haven't
managed to gather the data and apply the algorithms yet, so they let
themselves rely on a primarily inbound model that depends on the VCs building
a reputation and network, promoting themselves in the media, and then waiting
for founders to come to them through the filter of the Silicon Valley milieu.

While there ought to be a better way, there are also obstacles to collecting
perfect data in a fast-changing private market. Ideas gestate quietly,
startups are founded in stealth, most of the data is self-reported, and
therefore spotty and unreliable.

That said, I do think there's a lot of potential to gather data and analyze it
to make predictions about startup quality. Some investors have already done
that, based on their many interactions over decades. And those solutions, of
course, will remain private for some time. The smartest actors in the market
have little interest in improving how the rest of the market makes decisions.

~~~
jondubois
Yes, I think the real reason why VCs don't like meeting people outside of
their networks is that it makes them uncomfortable.

Meeting new people all the time is exhausting and destabilizing.

People like consistency and a feeling that the world is a small place full of
familiar faces.

I think that the herd mentality makes sense for small VCs who don't really
know what they're doing and don't have any vision but it's disappointing to
see it in these big guys too. They are the trendsetters after all.

That mentality is exactly why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Also it is sacrificing technology/innovation for sales/marketing/networking.

~~~
ig1
I think you misunderstand what is meant by networks.

VCs constantly meet new people but generally it's people recommended by their
current network or sourced by outbound research rather than people who cold
email.

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thefalcon
Listing influential books:

"The Baroque Cycle—a work of rigorously researched historical fiction with
only the slightest overlay of science fiction—tells the story of the emergence
of the modern world and its systems (democracy, the scientific method,
financial markets, etc.) in a way that is wholly fresh. These novels make me
think about what a Neal Stephenson of 2300 may write about our times and us."

That last sentence is fascinating to me, and I think telling about what helps
a Marc Andreessen stand out as a person.

~~~
cvsh
Reading the Baroque Cycle is probably the only thing I've done more
intellectually demanding than learning to code. It's ultra long and insanely
dense.

~~~
tricolon
I'll never forget the years I spent reading it.

------
b_emery
_We call this "what do nerds do on nights and weekends". This is the single
most reliable source of new ideas in our industry that will ultimately be
adopted much more broadly._

 _Right now we see huge nerd night and weekend energy in areas like
cryptocurrency, biohacking, quantified self, synthetic biology, virtual
reality, drones, and self-driving cars (!!)._

Anyone car to expand on this list? I'd include applied ML perhaps, and IoT
hacks.

~~~
lowglow
If you're into what nerds are doing on their weekends[0], we get together and
hack/show/chat about stuff every Sunday at Noisebridge. A lot of cool stuff
happening there from crypto/bots/bio/ai/vr and beyond. We also live stream the
event so it's easy to keep up and participate.

[0]
[https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Hack_Days](https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Hack_Days)

------
chx
I am not terribly impressed by Marc Andreessen since he invested and advocated
for uBeam, Soylent and claimed sleep is overrated. Laws of physics apply to
wireless chargers and biology applies to human bodies. This all has a whiff of
anti science and that is a stench you don't want around a technology
evangelist, frankly.

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devmunchies
We were excited about Atlas and just applied two days ago and got rejected
this morning. We have sales ready to get going but now have to legitimize the
old-fashioned way.

With the "network" of venture capitalist firms and startup incubators able to
give you an instant invite to Atlas, it felt like it's made for them (the
venture firms) and not the businesses.

~~~
patio11
Hiya, I'm Patrick and I work on Atlas. I'm sorry about that -- that rejection
appears to have been a mistake; I'll fix it for you (check your inbox in a few
minutes, please) and look into fixing the underlying cause more broadly.

~~~
devmunchies
Thanks, Patrick! You've made a fan out of me.

------
ropman76
"And so if a founder can’t navigate a network into a VC firm, it is unlikely
that founder has the skills to navigate the other networks required to succeed
in building a company." At what point does it make more sense to use your
networking skills to acquire more customers than use those same networking
skills to acquire VC dollars?

~~~
morgante
A strong network is generally fairly adaptable. The work goes into building
the network, not tapping it.

Once you have the network in place, you can just as easily tap it to find a VC
as to find customers. (Of course, this is assuming that your customers are
generally in overlapping industries/areas, which isn't always true.)

------
devdad
Can someone living in the US care to expand on this?

"...which is also when many VCs get back from their August vacations (sad but
true!)."

What is sad here? Being Swede,my initial reaction was "ok, late summer
vacation".

~~~
patio11
The VC industry is somewhat unique in the US in that it takes a long, almost-
industry-wide vacation at a time of year when other American professionals do
not have a coordinated vacation. People who have to interface with the
industry (like e.g. founders) are occasionally annoyed at what is, from their
perspective, an unannounced total work stoppage.

It is useful background knowledge here that American professionals culturally
expect less vacation total than European professionals do (the norm is ~2
weeks) and expect it to be largely non-contiguous with the exception of the
end-of-the-year holiday season.

~~~
antaviana
Is this because American people genuinely think that 2 weeks a year for
vacation is good enough, because of a culture of ambition, or simply because
of the grip of employers is too strong to take the risk of asking for longer
vacations (i.e. very cheap to fire people compared to other countries)?

~~~
emmett
It's just a cultural norm. There are strong economic and political and
historical reasons why the cultural norm exists, but the fish doesn't see the
water. From the point of view of an American, it's just "normal".

~~~
devmunchies
I know in Seattle its even more culturally tolerated because we get so little
sun year-round and you gotta binge in the peak summer month.

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everydaypanos
"Can we help you start your company? Join Stripe Atlas"

This made me think all the interview was an ad for Stripe Atlas. Marketing
ploy to lure you into the culture(we help you make the company + tell you all
the inside secrets for the second step - funding).

Irony is, we have applied to Stripe Atlas for a "Delaware" company as they
say, and it got rejected like in a few hours. So IDK for whom this is actually
intended.

~~~
icebraining
_This made me think all the interview was an ad for Stripe Atlas. Marketing
ploy to lure you into the culture(we help you make the company + tell you all
the inside secrets for the second step - funding)._

Of course it's an ad (or more specifically, "content marketing"). That's
generally what company blogs are for.

------
stevenj
I thought several of the questions asked were unique and interesting. It would
have been nice to hear Marc answer them in more detail.

