GP @a16z | Founder @a16zCLF | @lyonswine 🍷 | Board: @yugalabs @beardfoundation | Advisor: @blkeconalliance @newstorycharity @zegna @kauffmanfellows | ΚΑΨ 👌🏾
GA 🛫 SF 🛬 MIA
Joined May 2009
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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
chrislyons retweeted
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
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。
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.
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 ↓
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!!!
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!
chrislyons retweeted
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!
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?
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
chrislyons retweeted
Four years of honoring the people who built hip-hop.
Ben Horowitz and Erik Torenberg with Nas, Steve Stoute, and Grandmaster Caz on the Paid in Full Foundation
Caz penned rhymes that became Rapper's Delight. Even with his name in them, he got nothing.
The Paid in Full foundation honors the people who created hip-hop by making sure they're "paid in full," financially, spiritually, and culturally.
As Nas points out, money alone reads as a handout. So the grant comes attached to the honor. Each year at the foundation's Hip Hop Grandmaster Awards, pioneers are celebrated by the artists they inspired.
Caz ultimately received a five-year grant, bought a house, and left the projects. In his words: "The thing is the honor. The thing is putting you in the light that you deserve to be in."
Ben says he bought Paid in Full (the album) for $10 and got at least $5 million worth of value out of the record, with no way to pay it back.
The vision is paying the debt. Felicia Horowitz runs the foundation. She and Ben are matching donations 2.5 to 1, and every dollar goes to the artists.
paidinfullfoundation.org
0:00 Intro
1:40 The $10 album that was worth $5M to Ben
3:10 Nas: in hip-hop, you can't just give money
5:05 Why artists thought it was a scam
9:30 Caz wrote Rapper's Delight and got nothing
11:40 Roxanne Shanté: "I wanted the right award"
16:35 Dr. Dre asks to meet Kool Moe Dee and Slick Rick
18:50 Why the industry never did this
26:05 Ben: start with what's right, not what's possible
29:10 Inside the room: Grand Puba, George Clinton
32:15 The Quincy Jones Award
37:00 Scarface and Rakim talk writing for the first time
38:45 Caz: the grant got me out of the projects
43:45 What hip-hop did for Adidas, Hilfiger and Sprite
48:00 How Felicia saved Scarface's life
52:10 Quincy Jones stories, and Nas's jazz legend dad
@Nas @SteveStoute @GrandmasterCaz @bhorowitz @eriktorenberg
chrislyons retweeted
In 2018, Nike let Roger Federer walk rather than pay him roughly $10M a year. He signed with a small Swiss running brand called On instead, and took an ownership stake.
When On went public in 2021, that stake was worth around $300M. His career prize money from 20 Grand Slams and 24 years of tennis was $130M. The equity made him more than double what the entire playing career did.
Kylian Mbappé just ran the same play.
He'd worn Nike since he was 8 years old. Twelve signature Mercurials. His contract quietly expired on July 31 and he let it die, and the reporting on the On deal describes equity in the company, his own signature sub-brand, direct work with the product teams, and a term around ten years.
So he's now a part-owner of an $11B company that sells its first football boot in 2027. Nike was paying him to advertise Mercurials. On has him sharing in whatever the boots earn, which for a 27-year-old with a decade-long deal is a very different bet.
On also knew exactly who to send. Thierry Henry came in as Director of Football and reportedly played a big role in getting the deal done. Nike had 19 years and unlimited money and still lost him to a recruiter.
Federer's version of the trade took two years to pay off. Mbappé's boot hits the market before his next World Cup.
🚨🚨| BREAKING: Kylian Mbappé 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐓𝐒 Nike to sign with Swiss brand On Running, becoming the face of their debut football boot. 👟🇫🇷
On has also appointed Thierry Henry as Director of Football as part of their expansion into football.
[@TheAthleticFC]
chrislyons retweeted
It’s no secret that I’m bullish on Florida as a federalist project that’s attracting capital and businesses from across the country. It’s an extraordinary place to live and build.
West Palm Beach is the epitome of this kind of growth—and Stephen Ross and team are building a truly dynamic city and ecosystem. It’s been an incredible story of growth in America and we’re excited to become a larger part of it.
The American Dynamism team at @a16z is excited to open our West Palm Beach office.
It's time to Build 🌴🇺🇸🚀
Exclusive: Andreessen Horowitz is the latest venture-capital firm to open a new office in Florida to invest in startup defense companies on.wsj.com/3UGyUmI
chrislyons retweeted
Excited to announce @a16z is leading Highstock's Series A!
Highstock is an AI-powered marketplace tackling a trillion-dollar problem for consumer brands - excess inventory.
They have $1B+ in product listed from 100+ major brands, who use Highstock to reach vetted buyers 👇
chrislyons retweeted
Careers are long. And you never know how life re-intersects…
The karmic boomerang is real. For good (and for bad). Always why you should do the right thing!
