a16z Podcast

  • The Truth about 1000 True Fans + Pricing Our Attention

    The idea of “1000 true fans” — first proposed by Kevin Kelly in 2008 and later updated for Tools of Titans — argued that to be a successful creator, you don’t need millions of customers…

  • Writers Writing, Readers Reading, Creators Creating

    We’ve been financing good writing with bad advertising — and “attention monsters” (to quote Craig Mod) for way too long. So what happens when the technology for creators finally falls into place? We’re finally starting…

  • What’s Next for the Internet?

    How can we evolve the web for a better future? Has the web become a mature platform — or are we still in the early days of knowing what it can do and what role…

  • Controlling AI

    AI can do a lot of specific tasks as well as, or even better than, humans can — for example, it can more accurately classify images, more efficiently process mail, and more logically manipulate a…

  • Food, Drugs, and Tech—100 Years of Public Health

    The federal agency known as the FDA, or the Food and Drug Administration, was born over 100 years ago—at the turn of the industrial revolution, in a time of enormous upheaval and change, and rapidly…

  • On Pharma Trends and Big Company Innovation

    How does the world’s largest producer of medicines in terms of volume balance the science and the business of innovation? How does an enterprise at such vast scale make decisions about what to build vs.…

  • Personal Genomics: Where Are We, Really?

    This is a turn of the decade (and January-themed) look backward/ look forward into personal genomics, given recent and past retrospective and prospective pieces in the media on the promise, and perils, of the ability…

  • Why We Should Be Optimistic About the Future

    Many skeptics thought the internet would never reach mass adoption, but today it’s shaping global culture, is integral to our lives — and it’s just the beginning.  In this conversation from our 2019 innovation summit,…

  • What to Know about CFIUS

    When innovation and capital go global, so do restrictions on trade, foreign investment, and more. Over the past couple years, U.S. policymakers have expanded the scope of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.…

  • Are ISAs the Solution to Student Debt?

    A bold proposal: You go to college for free, then pay back the school after graduation—but only if you get a job in your field of study and make a high enough salary to afford…