Andreessen Horowitz, or ‘a16z’ is one of the most well-known VC firms in the world. 

Founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz of Netscape fame, the firm has played a significant role in funding and supporting companies across SaaS, fintech, biotech, healthtech, gaming, web3, and more. 

The firm’s portfolio includes some of the biggest names in the technology game, from Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb, and Stripe through to Lyft, Instacart, Pinterest, and Slack.

As such, a16z’s first three funds generated an IRR of 42%, 25%, and 27% respectively (below), earning it a place in the pantheon of top-quartile venture firms generating market-smashing returns. 

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And when it comes to content, a16z tops our list of VC web traffic (excluding YC which is more of an incubator than a fund). 

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The firm produces perhaps more content - and quality content at that - than any other VC firm.

In fact, as our analysis below shows, a16z produces no less than six podcasts, and has published thousands of articles, hundreds of reports, seven books, maintains eight domain-specific newsletters, and frequently features in third-party publications.

Let’s take a closer look at how a16z does content. 

But first, if you’re wondering what a16z means, it’s an abbreviation of Andreessen Horowitz, where A represents the first letter, Z the last, and 16 the number of characters in between. Hence, A16Z. 

Got it? Good. Let’s move on.

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Website

According to SimilarWeb, a16z.com generated 840,000 visits in September 2023, smashing through the 1.1M mark in July (below).

This is a testament not only to the brand name that a16z has cultivated over the years, but also to its deep reserve of founder-centric content.

While the website itself might lack the aesthetic flash of some, it is simple, easy to navigate, and would make Arnold Schwarzenegger proud for being, above all, useful.

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Podcasts

Andreesen Horowitz boasts not one, but six podcasts.

Its flagship The a16z Podcast is hundreds of episodes deep, and according to Chartable, routinely inside the top 20 tech podcasts across major western markets (below), collecting over 1,500 reviews along the way. 

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The show is now hosted by Stephanie Smith, author of Doing Content Right, who built a name in tech previously through content and code. This is yet another example of a VC firm bringing in outside talent to host a podcast, as did Notion Capital. Listen to an episode below.

Other podcasts in the a16z podcast network include domain-specific shows such as Bio Eats World, Field Notes with Connie Chan, and Zone of Genius.

Articles

A16z maintains numerous ‘canons’ of articles and comprehensive reports on numerous topics, from technology domains, through to guides on hiring, scaling, and navigating an exit. 

If like most people you’re upskilling in AI, find the firm’s AI content here.

Meanwhile, whatever you think about crypto, the firm’s crypto canon truly is something to behold.

‍Newsletters

When it comes to email newsletter deliverability, open rates, click rates, and above all, engagement, segmentation pays.

That’s why a16z keeps not one newsletter, but eight newsletters covering myriad topics (below).

Of note, its crypto newsletter is hosted on Substack, a portfolio company of theirs, which acts as another distribution channel for the firm’s content.  

Note: Republishing and/or repurposing your content for different platforms is something we're big advocates of. You've already done the hard work planning, researching and producing content, why not go the extra mile to repurpose it for as many platforms  as possible - especially when those platforms get you in front of more eyeballs? If you publish an article to your website, it makes sense to repost it on Medium, Substack, and third-party tech blogs that will have you, so long as they use canonical tags to signal to search engines the main version of an article.

‍Books

While some firms might have a partner who has authored or co-authored a book, a16z has seven. Noticing a theme here?

Not only have current partners put pen to paper, but several of these books have gone on to become category toppers, including Ben Horowitz’s The Hard Thing About Hard Things (13,400+ ratings on Amazon), Andrew Chen’s The Cold Start Problem (1,000+ reviews), or Scott Kupor’s The Secrets of Sand Hill Road (900+ reviews).

Books help to package up someone’s expertise and position them as a thought leader in a specific category, or in the case of Horowitz and Chen, further reiterate their standing. 

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Events

A16z runs numerous events to bring together founders, individual contributors, investors, thinkers, and more to share, learn, connect, and ultimately, have a great time doing so. 

The firm routinely has its team appearing at tech conferences across the globe, including the likes of SXSW, Disrupt, and SF Tech Week.

Social Media

Like our analysis of FirstMark, a16z partners are heavily active on Twitter.

Whether it’s Andrew Chen sharing insights on all things web3 and gaming, or Marc Andreesen sharing his thoughts on not only tech, but also the economy and political landscape at large, amassing over 1.3 million followers in the process.

The firm itself is super active on Twitter where it boasts over 700,000 followers, LinkedIn (365,000 followers), while TikTok videos tagged ‘a16z’ tag have received over 53million views, a testament to the firm’s partners' willingness to take the time to appear on other people’s platforms and podcasts. 

Speaking of which…

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Media and Third-Party Publications

Marc Andreesen was the first and only - as far as I can tell - venture capitalist to appear on the stupendously popular Joe Rogan podcast which is known to get upwards of 10 million downloads per episode. He has appeared on the show twice. Here he is discussing the Cold war in technology.

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Video

As for video content, a16z’s YouTube channel boasts over 111,000 subscribers and features over 860 videos with the most popular videos reaching well over 100,000 views.

Here’s OpenAI CTO Mira Murati discussing the future of AI as part of a16z’s AI Revolution series. 

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Jobs

Finally, the firm’s jobs board boasts well over 6,000 jobs which is no doubt to stimulate tons of inbound traffic, and interest in the firm, and help send all the right signals to search engines. 

Final Thoughts

While web traffic is a testament to many things - brand, networking, track record, advertising, and so on, there can be no disputing the fact that a16z’s relentless production of high-quality content on current and emerging tech trends keeps it relevant and front-of-mind for every high-potential founder.

When an American early-stage founder begins their search for funding, it’s almost inevitable that the first four characters they type into their web browser will be a16z.