Jason Rosenthal

Chris Dixon

No matter how well a founder has mapped out their idea maze, the road to product-market fit is unpredictable and difficult. The founders who do achieve product-market fit are rewarded with a set of new challenges: incumbents put a target on your back, recruiting and hiring needs to accelerate, prioritization becomes more complex, etc.

We’ve staffed the a16z crypto operating team with experts in functions such as go-to-market, recruiting, and regulatory, to provide guidance to our founders in those areas. We also know that founders often need guidance from someone who’s personally navigated many of the abstract, harder-to-define, but nevertheless critical obstacles that inevitably arise in any startup. Jason Rosenthal is a prime example of that someone. I’m very happy to share that Jason has joined a16z crypto as an Operating Partner.

Jason has spent more than 25 years as an internet entrepreneur and executive, including more than 10 years as a startup CEO, and his career has been dedicated to the development of transformational new platforms. 

His connections to a16z run deep: Ben trained him as a product manager at Netscape in the 1990s, and soon after Marc and Ben hired him as the first Loudcloud employee. As CEO of Ning in the early days of social, he led its successful transition from an ad-supported to a premium subscription business model. His five years as CEO of Lytro taught him when to scrap the strategy, among many other lessons, before he sold the company to Google in 2018. He most recently ran the majority of Google’s consumer-facing subscription services, with tens of millions of customers across 150+ countries. 

In his new role, Jason will be working closely with the CEOs and founders in our crypto portfolio to provide leadership guidance, help them plan for and react to the aspects of running companies in rapidly-changing markets, and generally help them become the best version of their professional selves. We’re thrilled to have him on board. Welcome, Jason!

***

The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.

This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.

Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.