GP @a16z | Founder @a16zCLF | @lyonswine 🍷 | Board: @yugalabs @beardfoundation | Advisor: @blkeconalliance @newstorycharity @zegna @kauffmanfellows | ΚΑΨ 👌🏾
GA 🛫 SF 🛬 MIA
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I had an incredible conversation with the legendary @MagicJohnson on the @a16z podcast discussing his best deals, investing where no one else is looking, and building a sports empire. Grateful for the 10+ years of building together and learning from the 🐐 on and off the court.
Give it a listen 🎙️
Earvin "Magic" Johnson and a16z's Chris Lyons sat down for a conversation on Magic's 30 year journey from athlete to billionaire businessman, including what Magic learned from Michael Ovitz, Magic's investments in Silicon Valley and sports, why athletes should take equity over endorsements, and more.
00:00 Introduction
05:09 How Michael Ovitz became Magic's first business mentor
07:42 The art of deal making and building a Rolodex
17:30 Magic's first Silicon Valley investment: Skydio
27:00 Building a team: Get people smarter than you
29:48 The one that got away: Nike stock in 1979
37:36 Why AI is changing everything
44:36 Sports ownership: Dodgers, Commanders, Sparks, and LAFC
@MagicJohnson @ChrisLyons
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chrislyons retweeted
46 years ago, Big Bank Hank stole the work of @GrandmasterCaz of The Cold Crush. He stole it so blatantly that Hank did not even bother to change Caz's name in the song, which went on to become Hip Hop's first big hit: Rapper's Delight. At the same time Hank's group The Sugar Hill Gang stole the music for Rapper's Delight from @nilerodgers. Neither original artist was paid or credited. But on Saturday Night, they performed the real version. @paidinfullorg @FeliciaHorowitz
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chrislyons retweeted
Cookie and I want to congratulate our friends Ben and Felicia Horowitz on announcing they will be building the first children’s only hospital in the state of Nevada! It’s incredible that one health scare with one of their children has turned into a blessing that is certainly going to save the lives of many children and have a tremendous impact on the families within in the Las Vegas community!
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Today, Governor Kathy Hochul announced the launch of @joinpursuit AI Jobs Institute, a new training hub in Long Island City, Queens. By 2032, it will serve up to 40,000 New Yorkers and build pathways into AI careers.
It's backed by $10M in public investment from New York State, the Queens Borough President's Office, and NYC partners, plus @Googleorg @OpenAI , @AnthropicAI , @WellsFargo , and others.
I'm honored to join the National Advisory Council as a founding member. It's chaired by former U.S. Secretary of Education Dr. Miguel Cardona, with leaders across government, education, tech, finance, and workforce development.
I've supported Pursuit for years. They help New Yorkers without a degree or a tech network move from low-wage work into six-figure tech careers. AI is creating new jobs faster than training systems can keep up, and the people who usually get passed over should share in the gains. An inclusive AI workforce is 100% the work needed right now.
Excited to help bring this model beyond New York, including Miami and ATL. Congrats to Nick Simmons and the whole Pursuit team!
pursuit.org/blog/ai-jobs-ins…
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chrislyons retweeted
The Strebulaev-Jackson AI Venture Ranking of the top 50 VC firms is now live.
Andreessen Horowitz tops the AI ranking with 22,509 points, about 1.6 times the score of Lightspeed Venture Partners.
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I’m very fortunate to work with the team at a16z for my entire entrepreneurial career, and can confidently say their team creates an unfair advantage to turn your vision into reality! Great partners and great ppl
Applications for @speedrun are now open! If you’re an ambitious, high agency founder - we want to meet you
We’ll bring the capital, customers, & talent - you bring yourself and your wildest ideas
Speedrun is an inception fund. We are your first believers - writing the first check and growing with you as your startup scales
Speedrun founders get up to $1M in funding and over $10M in startup credits across compute, cloud, marketing, and more
Speedrun is for founders with big ideas. We have teams creating new forms of datacenters, constructing orbital space platforms, disrupting 50yo vertical software incumbents, building novel AI doctors, and more
In a world where AI has made building easier than ever, the only cap on what a startup can achieve is the limit of their ambition. So we write the first check precisely on the ideas that sound a little crazy
apply at the link below before apps close on Nov 1st
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chrislyons retweeted
Welcome Hitoshi Yoshida to a16z and thank you Governor Koike-san for helping mark the occasion of our office opening! a16z Japan is officially open.
a16z is officially in Japan, led by Hitoshi Yoshida as Head of Japan, with the opening of our Japan office.
It was an honor welcoming Governor Koike at the opening earlier today. Japan combines world-class industrial capabilities with growing innovation in AI, cybersecurity, robotics, and defense. By bringing our portfolio companies and the Japanese ecosystem together, we aim to accelerate Japan’s AI-native economy and strengthen the ties between Silicon Valley and Japan.
As the former President of Microsoft Japan and Hewlett-Packard Japan, Hitoshi brings decades of technology leadership and deep relationships across business, industry, and government. We’re thrilled to have him lead our efforts in Japan and look forward to doing great work in partnership with the Japanese technology community.
日本代表として吉田仁志を迎え、日本オフィスを開設できたことを大変心強く光栄に思います。日本は、世界有数の産業基盤と、AI・サイバーセキュリティ・ロボティクス・防衛などの分野における目覚ましいイノベーションを兼ね備えています。
我々はこれまでになかった機会を、日本の若い世代に提供していくことを目指します。日本のテクノロジーコミュニティの皆様と共に、日本の市場やエコシステムの発展に貢献していけることを楽しみにしています。
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Some of what I learned from Virgil in his last years has stayed with me. Most of it had nothing to do with fashion. It had to do with who gets to build and what happens when the gate comes down.
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1 + 1 = @ElevenLabs ⓫
We just closed an employee tender offer which values @ElevenLabs at $22BN, up 2x from our Series D in February. The tender was led by Wellington and T. Rowe Price.
A few words on how we got here ↓
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Lfg @skupor 🫡
🚨 Wow 🤩
The seating chart for the Super Intelligence Luncheon at the White House has just dropped
Folks, we can’t pretend nothing is happening
We are witnessing a historic revolution, compared to which the wheel and the Industrial Revolution look like kindergarten games
Let’s enjoy it and hope for prudence
What a time to be alive!!!
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chrislyons retweeted
I don’t normally write these things. But this one hits a bit different. Nearly three years ago I told a16z I wanted to spend part time outside the firm helping @drfeifei start and build a frontier model company. And what followed were some of the most remarkable moments of my career. From being at the founding table. To watching the first git commits. Seeing the very early very rough results that hinted at something much greater. Contributing to the open source. Watching the creation of new model architectures that pushed the state of the art in multiple areas.
I saw the team spin magic from nothing again and again. And I was very privileged to be within the walls. I’m very proud of what was accomplished, and am so excited for what lies ahead.
So congratulations to AMD for entering into an agreement with the leading spatial intelligence frontier lab. And congratulations to the World Labs team on a partner that has the vision, ambition and leadership to be the top AI technology provider globally.
Also congratulations to Dr. Su and Dr. Li. Two world class CEOs with a common vision. The both of you working together is unimaginably legendary. Arguably the smartest leaders in tech with the shared goal of building the world's leading AI capabilities. I know you both share an optimistic view of AIs ability to aid humanity. We need far more of that.
As everyone knows. I’m World Lab’s biggest fan. And will remain so. Thanks to @drfeifei , @BenMildenhall , @jcjohnss and the entire team for letting me tag along. What a crazy fucking ride. You stood at the frontier, and moved it. And will continue to. Again, many congratulations to everyone involved. The future of AI will be so much brighter with this partnership. I can’t wait to see where it leads. Here’s to new worlds!
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One of the best bubble indicators from @pmarca -- where Harvard and Stanford MBAs go after graduation.
If they go into tech → market’s overblown.
If they go back to banking → great time to invest in startups.
Social status of MBAs is a good bubble indicator. Cool trivia!
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chrislyons retweeted
No one is going to care about the underlying AI model soon, especially for consumers. The models are already good enough for most of what people need. What consumers want is for AI to be useful, easy to access, and FREE or bundled into something they already pay for.
Clayton Christensen and Michael Raynor described this shift in the figure below which is in their book The Innovator’s Solution. When a product isn’t good enough, performance wins. Once it is good enough, convenience and cost start to matter more.
The winning question may soon be less Whose model is best? and more Why would I pay separately for this?
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chrislyons retweeted
Andreessen Horowitz has a message for up-and-coming tech talent: Don’t drop out of school to start a company; come do school with us instead. The venture-capital firm is investing $35 million in an unaccredited two-year alternative to traditional college. on.wsj.com/4rnuxci
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