Andreessen Horowitz, Dealmaker to the Stars of Silicon Valley
1–10 of 44 posts
Re: Andreessen Horowitz, Dealmaker to the Stars of Silicon Valley
#2That part about Andreessen warning about "risks" was really just a response to Bill Gurley sounding the alarm in a WSJ story. Until that time if you followed Andreessen on Twitter, you'd see him talking down the idea of a tech bubble, mocking Janet Yellen for her warning about valuations in social media, etc. It was basically that or go against another prominent VC in a fight about valuations. And this is not like the rest of Wall Street, there's not going to be any Icahn vs. Ackman style fights in the VC world. Relationships matter too much.
But at least 10 years from now once the current cycle has come to an end Andreessen can point to that one time he was on the record as warning about "risks" when really his M.O until then was to talk up valuations.
Re: Andreessen Horowitz, Dealmaker to the Stars of Silicon Valley
#3 Mr. Andreessen and his partners have invested so much
in so many start-ups that it would take a remarkable
string of successes to make the approach pay off. For
all their skill — the firm bought into the likes of
Airbnb, Instagram and Pinterest relatively early — their
track record suggests it’s unlikely. Already, they’ve
suffered a few impressive flameouts, including Fab, on
which they are likely to lose tens of millions of dollars.Re: Andreessen Horowitz, Dealmaker to the Stars of Silicon Valley
#4[deleted]
Re: Andreessen Horowitz, Dealmaker to the Stars of Silicon Valley
#5Inflating a valuation by 50% to 100% over "fair market value" means that the company will have to grow by 50% to 100% to grow into it's own shoes/expectations.
Holding all else equal, if future investors value the company at fair market value A16Z will have over-paid to get into the round.
If this is true then what is A16Z's angle? Do they believe that overpaying is a cost they are willing to incur to get the best deals and concentrate talent in their portfolio? Does this concentration of talent make up for a company's overvaluation? Ie: does a 100% overvaluation with A16Z lead to a greater than 100% company growth compared with other investors?
Re: Andreessen Horowitz, Dealmaker to the Stars of Silicon Valley
#6Going beyond the article, it feels like a16z gets in on a lot of the "hottest" startups of the moment. This makes sense given some people think a16z is the best VC in business, but it givens them a really weird slice of sv/hype-market risk that I don't think anyone really understands.
Re: Andreessen Horowitz, Dealmaker to the Stars of Silicon Valley
#7Mr. Andreessen and his partners have invested so much in so many start-ups that it would take a remarkable string of successes to make the approach pay off. For all their skill — the firm bought into the likes of Airbnb, Instagram and Pinterest relatively early — their track record suggests it’s unlikely. Already, they’ve suffered a few impressive flameouts, including Fab, on which they are likely to lose tens of mil…
How do you get the successes without the risk? If that were possible there would be no angel or VC and investment banks would just fund winners according to some formula.
Re: Andreessen Horowitz, Dealmaker to the Stars of Silicon Valley
#8Mr. Andreessen and his partners have invested so much in so many start-ups that it would take a remarkable string of successes to make the approach pay off. For all their skill — the firm bought into the likes of Airbnb, Instagram and Pinterest relatively early — their track record suggests it’s unlikely. Already, they’ve suffered a few impressive flameouts, including Fab, on which they are likely to lose tens of mil…
That's probably a short-sided opinion. There's a lot of companies in a16z'a portfolio that I could see going public or having a big acquisition in the next 5 years: http://a16z.com/portfolio/
Re: Andreessen Horowitz, Dealmaker to the Stars of Silicon Valley
#9Inflating a valuation by 50% to 100% over "fair market value" means that the company will have to grow by 50% to 100% to grow into it's own shoes/expectations. Holding all else equal, if future investors value the company at fair market value A16Z will have over-paid to get into the round. If this is true then what is A16Z's angle? Do they believe that overpaying is a cost they are willing to incur to get the best de…
Overvaluation is fine if they have put in place protections for their capital, like liquidation preferences and anti-dilution clauses for down rounds.
In that case by pumping up a companies valuation in a financing event they're able to win the deal and put a stake in the ground for any acquisition offers.
If the company is acquired for less than the last valuation they still get all their capital returned to them under the liquidation preference as well as a percentage of the proceeds.
Re: Andreessen Horowitz, Dealmaker to the Stars of Silicon Valley
#10There is definitely a lack of transparency in venture funding, and studies show overall how VC's have been barely breaking even. Most of the big name investors were successful entrepreneurs (e.g. Andreessen and Netscape, e.g. Khosla and Sun, etc) who are assumed to be good investors. In reality, if most of these founders put their money in standard index funds, they would have better returns adjusted for risk, but without all of the publicity that they crave.
Also, the quote attributed to Andreeseen at the end was originally from Warren Buffet's 2001 letter to shareholders. "After all, you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out." http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett