Original Title: "a16z is a Media Company"
Original Source: Funeral AI
Today's top VCs are essentially media companies.
a16z is the best proof of this.
In 2009, a16z founder Marc Andreessen provided a positioning at its inception—a media company that profits through investment.
At that time, this positioning was quite radical. But as of 2025, it has proven to be the most accurate prediction for the future of the VC industry.
Because attention is scarcer than fiat currency.
Fiat currency can be printed indiscriminately, but everyone has only a few hours of awake time each day. Having attention alone can only lead to traffic business; influencer marketing operates on this logic.
But when attention is combined with trust, it transforms into influence. Influence is the truly scarce asset that can be monetized.
Monetizing influence is only completely legal in two places worldwide: one is the crypto space, and the other is the primary market.
Sun Yuchen is criticized for speculation in the crypto space, while a16z engages in similar activities in the primary market and is revered as a standard.
So, how exactly does a16z achieve this?
01 Power
The core capability of a16z can be summarized in two words—power.
Marc Andreessen himself has stated clearly: "We always believe that what you want from a VC is power, the ability to gain public attention."
What does this power specifically refer to?
It refers to the ability of startups to directly define industry agendas, influence public perception, and attract other capital to follow suit. The carrier of this ability is content.
Marc himself is a top content creator.
From the 2011 article "Why Software Is Eating the World," to the 2020 piece "It's Time to Build," and then to the 2023 articles "Why AI Will Save the World" and "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto," almost every article Marc writes sparks industry-wide discussions.
His long-form articles have been published approximately every 8 months over the past two years, each one a meticulously crafted product.
The influence of these articles comes from two points.
First, Marc's precise capture of the zeitgeist. "It's Time to Build" hit the sense of helplessness felt across the Western world at the onset of the pandemic.
Second, his ability to elevate business topics to the level of national and civilizational importance. "The Little Tech Agenda" directly equates supporting small tech companies with defending American technological hegemony. Marc packages the commercial interests of VCs as American national interests.
a16z has also built a professional and large content team.
According to information on a16z's official website, they have dedicated content directors, podcast hosts, and video production teams. Chris Dixon is responsible for content output in the cryptocurrency field, Connie Chan focuses on the Chinese market and mobile internet, Katherine Boyle leads the "American Dynamism" series, and Sriram Krishnan hosts podcasts and participates in Web3 narrative creation.
The content output of a16z is industrialized and systematic. They have their own podcast programs, YouTube channels, and special reports. The task of this team is to transform a16z's investment themes into shareable narratives and reach policymakers, LPs, entrepreneurs, and other VCs through various channels.
With content capabilities, a16z possesses the core ability of "calling shots + driving up valuations."
Calling shots: Through Marc's articles and the systematic output of the content team, they propose a grand narrative (such as Web3 Matters, AI Will Save the World) and define it as a trend of the times.
Driving up valuations: When the narrative begins to gain traction, they immediately invest hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars into the sector, raising the valuations of star projects by 10 times or 100 times, solidifying the narrative. Other VCs see a16z entering the field and will follow suit, further increasing the overall sector valuation.
This is the "narrative-investment" core capability of a16z.
a16z has generated a cumulative net return of $25 billion for LPs.
Content creates influence, and investment transforms that influence into skyrocketing valuations. Manipulating the K-line and becoming the market maker makes it easier to exit.
So, how has a16z developed its "calling shots" ability?
02 Calling Shots
a16z's grand narrative, aka calling shots ability, has a replicable methodology. I summarize it as the "a16z Five-Step Narrative Method."
Directly hit group emotions, propose a disruptive framework, construct an us-versus-them dichotomy, elevate to a civilizational level, and shout a battle cry.
Step by step.
Step 1: Directly hit group emotions.
Marc's articles never create hype out of thin air; they are just half a step ahead of industry sentiment. They cannot be too far ahead or lag behind.
"It’s Time to Build" (2020) begins with: "Every Western institution was unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic… This massive failure of institutional efficacy will have lasting effects for the next decade." At the onset of the pandemic, the entire Western world was experiencing a sense of frustration over institutional failure, and Marc precisely captured this sentiment, regardless of political affiliation.
"Why AI Will Save the World" (2023) opens with: "The age of artificial intelligence has arrived, and oh my, people are terrified." It acknowledges the public's panic over AI in a light-hearted tone, then strikes hard at AI skepticism.
Step 2: Propose a disruptive framework.
After establishing emotional resonance, Marc immediately throws out a disruptive new framework, pulling the debate into his own arena.
"Why Software Is Eating the World" (2011) does not get entangled in whether tech stocks are a bubble; it directly redefines the issue: this is an economic revolution where "software is becoming the infrastructure of all industries." It turns the valuation debate into a question of "Do you understand the future?"
"It’s Time to Build" does not get bogged down in the supply chain of masks and ventilators; it directly states: "The problem is desire. We need to want these things. The problem is inertia, the problem is will." It elevates the supply chain issue to the level of American national will and spirit.
Step 3: Construct an us-versus-them dichotomy.
Marc simplifies the world into two camps, forcing readers to take sides.
"The Little Tech Agenda" (2024) is the clearest: "We support those who support small tech. We oppose those who oppose small tech." Extremely simple political mobilization language, black and white. We are the Little Tech startups; they are the Big Tech giants and harmful government policies.
"Why AI Will Save the World" (2023) goes further: We are the builders of AI, the heroes, the optimists. They are the doomsayers, further divided into Baptists (naive but exploited), bootleggers (profiting under the radar), and even labeled as "AI risk cultists."
Not only does it delineate camps, but it also weakens the legitimacy of opponents through stigmatizing labels.
Step 4: Elevate to a civilizational level.
Marc is very adept at elevating values, turning specific issues into grand narratives concerning the nation, humanity, and civilization.
"The Little Tech Agenda": "America's technological hegemony and the crucial role of small tech startups in ensuring this hegemony… a first-class political issue on par with any other." Supporting startups = American technological hegemony = national security. The commercial interests of VCs are directly equated with American national interests.
"The Techno-Optimist Manifesto" (2023): "We believe that growth is progress, and we believe that stagnation leads to death." Technological optimism = survival; opposition = death. It elevates business choices to matters of life and death.
Step 5: Shout a battle cry.
Marc condenses complex arguments into short, powerful, and easily shareable slogans. The title itself is a slogan, emphasized throughout the text, and reiterated at the end.
The titles have distinct characteristics:
- Strong propositions (Manifesto/Agenda as worldview declarations);
- Calls to action (It's Time to Build, imperative sentences, a sense of mobilization);
- Grand vocabulary (World/Future, emphasizing direction rather than details);
- Very few modifiers (modifiers indicate a lack of boldness; the more concise, the more powerful).
For example, "It's Time to Build," the title is the slogan, appearing repeatedly throughout the text. "Why AI Will Save the World" ends with "We win, they lose."
The conclusion of "The Little Tech Agenda" is even grander:
"The glory of a Second American Century is within our reach.
Let's grasp it."
a16z's website is also very stylish; you can tell the brother truly believes in the new Rome.
Marc knows his positioning; he understands that his articles should be for B2B communication, not B2C traffic. The target readers are policymakers, other VCs and LPs, entrepreneurs and engineers, media, and opinion leaders.
This determines that his titles must be concise, grand, and powerful enough for those who don't have time to read the full text to remember the core points and relay them.
This is the basic method of a16z's calling shots. It lays the emotional groundwork for subsequent valuation-driving actions, creating industry FOMO; moral legitimacy, investment equals justice; political height, investment equals safeguarding civilization; mobilization capability, It's Time to Build.
Now, let's see how a16z transforms these narratives into real monetary returns.
03 Driving Up Valuations
a16z's calling shots is just the beginning. What truly forms a closed loop for this approach is the immediate investment that follows the narrative, entering the field to drive up valuations.
In 2021, a16z published articles waving the flag for Web3, consecutively releasing the grand piece "Why Web3 Matters" and a policy agenda. Almost simultaneously, a16z announced the establishment of a $2.2 billion cryptocurrency fund, Crypto Fund III.
By 2022, this figure had turned into $4.5 billion for Crypto Fund IV.
a16z has invested in star projects in the Web3 space, such as OpenSea and Dapper Labs. OpenSea's valuation skyrocketed from $1.5 billion in July 2021 to $13.3 billion in January 2022 within just six months.
The logic is very simple.
a16z tells the world through its articles that "Web3 is the future," and then a16z invests billions of dollars to tell the market, "We are serious." Other VCs see a16z entering the field and naturally follow suit. LPs, seeing a16z's judgment, will also increase their allocation to Web3. This is how the entire sector's valuation gets pushed up.
The logic for the AI sector is exactly the same. In June 2023, Marc published "Why AI Will Save the World," refuting AI threat theories and advocating for AI accelerationism. In the same year, a16z announced an investment in Character.AI, leading a $150 million Series A round. In 2024, they continued to double down on AI infrastructure and applications.
This is the operational mechanism of the "narrative-investment" dual flywheel.
Narratives create attention and expectations, while investments convert those expectations into actual valuations. The grander the narrative, the more capital follows, and the more astonishing the valuation increases. As the earliest player to enter and the one with the largest investment volume, a16z naturally reaps the greatest rewards from the soaring valuations.
More critically, a16z's approach has gained moral legitimacy.
Marc's articles frame investment actions as a grand mission to "defend American technological hegemony, promote human progress, and combat stagnation and death." It is hard to accuse a16z of mere speculation because their narrative has risen to the level of national interest and the survival of civilization.
When you have enough power, you can create your own K-line. So, the current version of the stock god is undoubtedly Trump.
What a16z does is precisely this. They create expectations through content, shape reality through capital, and imbue the entire process with legitimacy and a sense of justice through grand narratives.
This is the high realm of monetizing influence.
04 Media
Why does a16z want to transform itself into a media company?
The motivation behind this goes back to Marc's deep reflections on power and media.
Before 2016, Marc believed that the relationship between the tech industry and mainstream media was "healthy, normal, and productive." He recalled in a podcast that from 1993 to 2016, the media was curious about the tech industry, willing to learn, and trying to understand the changes happening.
But everything changed after Trump was elected in 2016.
In the spring of 2017, during a media tour, Marc discovered that "it was as if someone had flipped a switch; all media became incredibly hostile, a 100% shift, absolute hostility."
Marc believes that this shift has three reasons.
The media blamed Trump's election on tech platforms and projected political antagonism onto the entire tech industry.
The traditional media's business model was destroyed by social media, leading to economic hardship and resentment towards the tech industry.
The tech industry transitioned from being a tool provider to a force that disrupts the entire social structure, warranting stricter scrutiny.
The deeper issue is that social media acts like an "X-ray machine."
An X-ray machine can see inside the human body, revealing bones and ailments. Social media does the same; it allows everyone to see and spread the truth in real-time, repeatedly exposing the internal flaws and inconsistencies of traditional institutions.
Marc cites the theory of former CIA analyst Martin Gurri:
"Social media will completely destroy the authority of all existing institutions. It does this by revealing, through this X-ray effect, that essentially none of these institutions are trustworthy."
The brother spends all day on podcasts criticizing the media; he really makes me cry.
In this context, if VCs want to gain power—the ability to influence public perception, define industry agendas, and attract capital to follow—they can only build their own media to bypass the hostile and credibility-crumbling traditional media.
Marc repeatedly emphasizes in podcasts: "We always believe that what you want from a VC is power. You need power, which means you need to be able to genuinely meet clients and have them take you seriously; you need the ability to gain public attention."
a16z's media platform is the core tool for achieving this distribution of "power."
Marc likens this strategy to "bridge loans for brands": before a startup has its own strong brand, it can borrow a16z's brand to gain initial market recognition.
Thus, the motivation for a16z to become a media company is very clear.
In an era of traditional media's loss of trust, only by mastering the ability to produce and distribute content can one truly grasp power. And power is the most scarce resource that VCs can provide to startups.
Returning to the initial question: What is the essence of VC?
The traditional answer is: VCs are capital intermediaries that connect LPs and startups, obtaining returns through investments.
But a16z offers a new answer: VCs are media companies that profit through investment.
a16z's success proves the correctness of this answer. They create grand narratives through newsletters and video podcasts, convert those narratives into soaring sector valuations with billions of dollars in real capital, and build a network of power through their content team and Marc's influence.
This dual flywheel of calling shots and driving up valuations has allowed a16z to achieve returns far exceeding its peers in sectors like SaaS, Web3, and AI.
More importantly, a16z's approach has gained "moral legitimacy." Marc's articles frame investment actions as a grand mission to "defend American technological hegemony and promote human progress."
Sun Yuchen's speculation in the crypto space, similarly involving issuing tokens and driving up valuations, is met with widespread criticism. In contrast, a16z's speculation in the primary market—narrative → investment → soaring valuations—is revered as a standard.
What is the difference?
One lacks a system, relying purely on speculation and unscrupulous means, only able to garner attention. The other has a complete methodology, backed by real capital, packaging commercial interests as national interests, continuously generating influence.
Attention is scarcer than fiat currency. Having attention alone can only lead to traffic business, but when attention is combined with trust, it transforms into influence. And influence is the truly scarce asset that can be monetized.
a16z's success is a textbook case of monetizing influence.
In this sense, today's top VCs are essentially media companies. VC is just a part of the business model; content and influence are the core assets.
VC is media.
Influence is power.
(Reference materials, I really read through all of a16z's representative articles)
https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/why-web3-matters/
https://a16z.com/ai-will-save-the-world/https://a16z.com/its-time-to-build/
https://a16z.com/social-strikes-back/https://a16z.com/the-next-phase-of-social-listen-closely/
https://a16z.com/meet-me-in-the-metaverse/
https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/nfts-thousand-true-fans/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2016/07/12/marc-andreessen-now-software-is-programming-the-world/
https://a16z.com/introducing-erik-torenberg/
https://a16z.com/disposable-software/
https://alidocs.dingtalk.com/i/desktop
https://a16z.com/the-little-tech-agenda/
https://a16z.com/the-future-of-the-news-business-a-monumental-twitter-stream-all-in-one-place/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/18/tomorrows-advance-man?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://vccontent.club/p/the-next-great-vc-firm-will-be-built-like-a-media-company-from-day-one
https://investing101.substack.com/p/the-state-of-startup-media
https://www.newcomer.co/p/andreessen-horowitz-has-returned
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