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Many speculation industry observershave wonderedwhether Andreessen Horowitz , a firm thatmanages $ 45 billion , has its great deal on eventually becoming a publicly switch society .
Co - founder Marc Andreessen state he is n’t “ chomp at the bit to take the firm public , ” on this week’sInvest Like the good podcast . But he discussed his destination of building a16z into an enduring company , drawing inspiration from JP Morgan and publicly deal individual equity firm .
Historically , venture chapiter firms have been partnership comprise of a “ minor tribe of people sit in a way together , trying to bounce ideas off of each other when they make investment , ” Andreessen said on the podcast .
The problem with the partnership mannequin , he state , is that it ’s extremely dependent on the ideas and expertise of those hoi polloi at the mesa with “ no rudimentary asset value , ” as he described it . Once the original partners pull back , the business firm drop off a lot of its time value , even if a new generation of investor takes over .
“ But even if they can keep it going , there ’s no underlying asset time value . That next contemporaries is just go to have to hand it off to the third generation , ” he sound out . “ That ’s probably give way to die on the third generation . It ’s going to be on Wikipedia someday : that firm exist , and then it went by . ”
The partnership framework can be lucrative . A16z ’s billions under management generates sizable money direction fees for the firm , in gain to lucre made when its investment come after .
However , Andreessen tell he constantly reminds internal faculty and circumscribed partners that the company is n’t raise money just to harvest the fees . It ’s to give the company the cash to invest in develop companies .
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“ When we go for scale , it ’s because we think it ’s necessary to support the kinds of companies we want to help our founders build , ” he said .
Andreessen enjoin his bigger goal for a16z is to create a companionship that lasts . An choice to a partnership is to build an investment fellowship that ’s managed like a business concern , which means it has management , multiple layers of staff , sectionalisation of labor with specializations , and breeding programs , Andreessen order .
There are certainly precedent of small partnership evolving into large potbelly , which Andreessen can use as a model for a16z ’s ambitions .
“ Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan , 100 years ago , looked like fiddling speculation upper-case letter firms , ” he say . “ Then their leader , over time , turned them into huge franchises and vainglorious public caller . ”
He named other examples , too , of private partnership turn into large publicly traded companies like big private equity firm . Blackstone , which now has a market capitalization of over $ 200 billion , went public in 2007 . Apollo , KKR , and Carlyle held their IPOs before long after Blackstone , and TPG list on Nasdaq in early 2022 .
Andreessen argues that as these companies raise from partnerships into big corporations , their farseeing - full term winner became less dependent on a few central investors .
“ A big part of what we ’ve been trying to do is build something that has that variety of prevail look to it , ” he say .
In many elbow room , Andreessen Horowitz already look more like an operating company than many VC firms . A16z has dozens of people in its marketing group and large squad that help portfolio companies levy talent and sell their product . The firm runs separate crypto , bio and wellness , and American dynamism strategies .
But maybe there ’s another reason Andreessen is sharp to restructure away from the classical VC scheme . When it comes to partnerships , he says , “ It really turns out in most cases , what you bring out is that people actually do n’t like each other that much . ”
