a16z always intended to be a media empire. This is the story of how it was built. As one of a16z’s earliest employees, Margit Wennmachers laid the foundations for a16z’s marketing operation. In this conversation with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, she shares stories of telling Marc to write Why Software Is Eating the World, getting Ben on the cover of Fortune Magazine, and finding that no publications were willing to run Marc’s now famous It’s Time to Build. The conversation also covers why founders should have a public voice, how a16z learned from CAA and changed venture, the power of authentic personality-driven media, and how the role of traditional media has changed. 00:00 Introduction 00:43 Meeting at The Creamery: When the firm had no office 06:24 “Treat LPs like mushrooms” 11:00 “We don’t have products. We have people and ideas” 14:45 The Fortune cover that started a war 28:03 Software is Eating the World: One draft, no edits 29:45 When nobody would publish “It’s Time to Build” 33:36 Why Ben wrote a book 41:30 “You can’t market a company without a character” 50:33 The GPT test for human communication 53:30 “How many people have something to say every day?” 57:00 Every company needs a personality @wennmachers @pmarca @bhorowitz