Ben & Marc: Why Everything Is About to Get 10x Bigger

What virtually everybody finds including Elon Musk is the real world is just really, really big and really, really messy. The AI I think is so interesting, right, because from a technology perspective, it feels like you can build products pretty immediately that are gonna win. Our entire way of doing everything as humans, we think is gonna change. We reinvented the computer, and the new computer is far better than the one that we have been building on for the last fifty or so years. The purpose of building the dominant venture brand was precisely to be able to have the companies be able to borrow that at the most critical points in their development so that the companies can kinda use our force in the world as a slingshot to basically build their own force. You cannot join the firm unless you sign the culture document. If you had to pick a thing, what are you compounding? Reputation. The media ecosystem is entering a more open era, and the conversation about what speech should look like is no longer controlled by a small set of institutions. In this episode, a sixteen z cofounders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz joined Not Boring founder, Packie McCormack, to talk through how the information environment changed over the past decade and what that shift means for creators, platforms, and investors. We start with Packie's reference point, a 2015 New Yorker profile liberated information environment where we are now. Mark and Ben break down the turning points they think mattered most, including Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter and Substack's decision to hold a consistent principled line on speech under heavy pressure. They explain why a sixteen z invested in Substack and how enabling writers to monetize directly creates a supply of content that pulls new demand into existence. Ben explains the nonfungible writer and why value has shifted from institutional brands to individual voices. We also connect these media dynamics to how a sixteen z operates as a firm, why reputation is the core compounding advantage, how that reputation transfers to portfolio companies, and why organizational design matters as the firm scales. Finally, Mark and Ben dive into what they're personally most excited about next, including Mark's optimism about Zoomer founders. Let's get into it. So, Taki, I wanna start by saying thank you for the amazing piece. Like, it is incredible. Like, absolutely incredible. So we we we just, like, really appreciate all the work that you put into it because that was a big one. Thank you. I I mean, I I appreciate being able to tell this story. It's such a cool one, and I appreciate, you know, getting to work with you guys on it. And thank you for, the colorful motions, I think, made the whole as soon as I heard that, I was like, I know what the whole piece looks like now. I remember thinking I really shouldn't be doing this in front of a New …