Andreessen Pulls a Bezos • Hacker News Board

Re: Andreessen Pulls a Bezos

#21

Post by ggalaxximm » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 1:29 AM UTC

Ninety percent of everything is crap, and this "article" is no exception.

Re: Andreessen Pulls a Bezos

#22

Post by gru232 » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 1:30 AM UTC

“Andreessen Pulls a Bezos” I was expecting pics of Andreessen riding a giant penis into space then gloating about how his employees & customers paid for it all. Disappointed.

Re: Andreessen Pulls a Bezos

#23

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 1:31 AM UTC

hamburgerwah wrote: post #13

A16Z and Andreesen are a joke. It's overall returns are below that of index funds.

[deleted]

Re: Andreessen Pulls a Bezos

#24

Post by t212 » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 1:36 AM UTC

jamestimmins wrote: post #10

I've heard of other VC firms with similar models of having a lot of support services baked into their business. Does anyone know if what A16Z doing is actually unique, or if they're just branding/publicizing an existing model?

Sequoia does this too.

Re: Andreessen Pulls a Bezos

#25

Post by seibelj » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 1:36 AM UTC

lotsofpulp wrote: post #18

seibelj wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mandates that are often backed by state law. Tax payers are then required to make up the difference if they don’t hit their targets. A good list here https://www.nasra.org/latestreturnassumptions

Classifying a pension fund’s expected return on assets to be a legal obligation to earn that much is a stretch. The pension fund’s board could just as easily use a lower expected return on assets, but you are correct that using a higher than reasonable return assumption transfers debt from yesterday’s taxpayer to tomorrow’s taxpayer, and that is by design since future taxpayers are not particularly strong voting bloc…

You act as if reducing the rate of return is a simple maneuver. This is politically fraught as it automatically requires employees to contribute more money.

Here is an article from today about drama in Illinois, the state with the worst funded pensions in America. Tax payers are legally obligated to back these https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-park-district-reform-...

Re: Andreessen Pulls a Bezos

#26

Post by rkk3 » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 1:43 AM UTC

They have always explicitly said they modeled themselves after the agency CAA, which was more than just a rep because leveraged their network/roster of talent synergistically. Not sure it needed another analogy.

Also the capital + services model is an interesting theory, but I haven't heard any stories of it living up to the marketing hype from portfolio companies. Don't think it is anywhere close to top of mind when you are comparing term sheets against other top firms.

1. https://a16z-live.simplecast.com/episodes/beating-the-incumb...

Re: Andreessen Pulls a Bezos

#27

Post by jjeaff » Sat, Sep 11, 2021, 1:44 AM UTC

jamestimmins wrote: post #10

I've heard of other VC firms with similar models of having a lot of support services baked into their business. Does anyone know if what A16Z doing is actually unique, or if they're just branding/publicizing an existing model?

I had a company funded by a smaller VC 6+ years ago that offered services like this. The reality was that it was a real pain. They offered "discounted" services but the discounted rate was far more expensive than what we could find for ourselves. And we had to deal with the pressure of their soft sales pitch for everything. Our in house bookkeepers are only $50 an hour, use out legal firm for $500/hr. Our tax accountant, on and on. Honestly, I didn't want them to have their fingers in so much detail even though they are investors and as someone who has been doing this for a good while, I already have contacts that will do a better job for cheaper.