Andreessen Horowitz has a very strong spray and pray feel to it relative to other funds in its class (much like YC). Look at how enormous its portfolio page is: https://a16z.com/portfolio/ . I bet this list isn't all inclusive, either. For comparison: Founders Fund has an IRR of ~55%, at ~$1B AUM scale. It tends to invest in fewer companies -- with much higher bar and conviction -- and its portfolio has a much lower…
I created two theories[1] to explain the difference in investing perspectives between Marc Andreessen and Peter Thiel:
(a16z ≠ Andreessen, Founders Fund ≠ Thiel)
Run Faster vs. Jump Higher
Higher: Investing for Control
You can term Peter’s approach to entrepreneurial strategy: investing for control.
You achieve it by patiently building your business at the same time as ensuring that you will be insulated from future competition. It takes time and it takes investment dollars as resources. Put out some crappy minimum viable product and you lose some options to control because you have shown your hand to others. Instead, what you want to do is put out a complete product with a strategy to acquire the complementary resources to insulate it from future competition.
There is, however, another sort of monopoly — a path that gets you 100 percent of a real market. This is done by having the capabilities to beat all rivals on either quality or cost. To see how this arises consider a very structurally price-competitive market (in economics, Bertrand competition). Now suppose that you develop an innovation that allows having lower marginal costs than everyone else. In this situation, you will be able to capture 100 percent of the market and so you will be a technical monopoly.
Faster: Focusing on finding the timing
You can term Marc’s approach to entrepreneurial strategy: focusing on execution(finding the timing).
It is not so obvious that one path to monopoly is more profitable than the other. If you focus on execution you can get to market quicker and with fewer resources. You can learn as you go and actually invest for the capabilities that will give you a competitive advantage in the future. In other words, while it takes on-going work — no resting on your monopoly laurels here — you can still ‘own’ a market. The difference is that your pricing is constrained by potential competition from other firms.
Finding the timing is the most important part of the execution. You need to execute your idea fast and good enough within the critical window to succeed. Most importantly, you may need to survive long enough to find the right window.
[1] Marc Andreessen vs. Peter Thiel https://allenleein.github.io/games/1930/01/02/narratives.htm...