a16z Podcast

  • Designing a Culture of Reinvention

    Since Netflix started in the late 90s as a DVD-by-mail rental service competing with Blockbuster, it has completely reinvented itself… twice – first, when it went from DVD rental to video streaming platform, and then…

  • Heroes & Myths in Entrepreneurship — Guy Raz

    “I’m in a movie, but it’s the wrong movie.” For better or for worse, we tell the story of entrepreneurs as one of the mythical hero’s journey: that’s there’s a call, a test (multiple tests!),…

  • The Question of Education

    Monopoly, oligopoly, cartel. All three of those words can describe the (not so) modern education system today, given the cost structures, economics, and accreditation capture — in everything from who can and can’t start a…

  • Pandemic Relief and Fraud: Willful Deceit or Design Defect?

    This episode examines the potential for misuse and fraud among those applying for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)—and how fintech and software provide overlooked tools to stop it.   On March 27th, the government enacted a…

  • Measuring & Managing Community Orgs, Developer Relations and Beyond

    Okay, so we know community is important — whether for developer relations for your product or other types of communities — but how do we measure the success of community initiatives and even artifacts (like…

  • Reining in Complexity: Data Science & Future of AI/ML Businesses

    There is no spoon. Or rather, “There is no such thing as ‘data’, there’s just frozen models”, argues Peter Wang, the co-founder and CEO of Anaconda — who also created the PyData conferences and grew…

  • Online Learning and the Ed Tech Debate

    This episode is all about education and technology, a topic that’s especially top of mind this week as students in much of the country return to school—virtually. The intersection of learning and technology has been…

  • On Vaccines and Vaccinology, in COVID and Beyond

    WHEN are we going to have a COVID-19 vaccine, and how the heck are we going from (what’s been traditionally been up to) 12 years or so of vaccine development compressed into 12 months or…

  • Turning Open Source Developers Into Superfans

    In this episode, we continue our community series with a recent discussion that applies to many kinds of community building. Today’s topic: How do you create a platform that people not only use, but tell…

  • Journal Club: Slaying the Sleeper Cells of Aging with CAR T

    CAR T therapy is a groundbreaking medicine that uses engineered T cells to attack cancer. But CAR T cells (that is, chimeric antigen receptor T cells) can be programmed to recognize a huge range of…