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a16z Podcast: The Curious Case of the OpenTable IPOFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-07-24 22:38
There are the things that you carefully plan when it comes to an IPO -- the who (the bankers, the desired institutional investors); the what (the pricing, the allocations); and the when (are we ready? is this a good public business?). But then there ...
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a16z Podcast: Making a (Really) Wild Geo-Engineering Idea RealFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-07-18 13:20
Here’s what we know: There’s a pair (father and son) of Russian scientists trying to resurrect (or rather, "rewild") an Ice Age (aka Pleistocene era) biome (grassland) complete with (gene edited, lab-grown) woolly mammoths (derived from elephants). I...
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a16z Podcast: Addiction vs Popularity in the Age of ViralityFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-07-15 01:36
In the age of virality, what does it actually mean to be popular? When does popularity -- or good product design, for that matter -- cross over from desire and engagement... to addiction? Journalist and editor Derek Thompson, author of Hit Makers: Th...
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a16z Podcast: The Golden Era of Productivity, Retail, and Supply ChainsFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-07-11 05:25
This episode of the a16z Podcast takes us on a quick tour through the themes of economics/historian/journalist Marc Levinson's books -- from An Extraordinary Time, on the end of the postwar boom and the return of the ordinary economy; to The Great A&...
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a16z Podcast: The Cloud Atlas to Real Quantum ComputingFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-06-30 21:31
A funny thing happened on the way to quantum computing: Unlike other major shifts in classic computing before it, it begins -- not ends -- with The Cloud. That's because quantum computers today are more like "physics experiments in a can" that most c...
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a16z Podcast: Companies, Networks, CrowdsFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-06-29 06:27
Is a network -- whether a crowd or blockchain-based entity -- going to replace the firm anytime soon? Not yet, argue Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson in the new book Machine, Platform, Crowd. But that title is a bit misleading, because the real qu...
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a16z Podcast: Lobbying TechFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-06-24 21:32
What is lobbying, really? Is it “white", "heavy-set" men "playing golf" and making arrangements in "smoke-filled back rooms”? It's not like that anymore, according to two lobbyists who join this episode of the a16z Podcast to pull back the curtain on...
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a16z Podcast: Cybersecurity in the Boardroom vs. the Situation RoomFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-06-18 22:22
"We're always fighting the last war" -- that's a phrase historians like to use because policymakers and others tend to be so focused on the threats they already know, and our mindsets and organizational structures are oriented to respond that way as ...
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a16z Podcast: Taking the ‘Cyber’ Out of CybersecurityFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-06-16 06:10
Nearly every cybersecurity discussion/presentation follows this formula: We don’t know what we’re doing; the bad guys are getting smarter; our defenses are getting worse; everything's more connected than ever; we’re heading towards a digital . But ev...
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a16z Podcast: Changing the Conversation about CybersecurityFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-06-16 01:56
When individuals gain the abilities that only nation states once had, how do we put cyber threats in perspective for policymakers -- without unduly "inflating" the threats? As it is, security is an intense and important topic, so our job is to be sca...
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a16z Podcast: Taking the Measure of Tech in Policy -- with Kamala HarrisFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-06-09 00:24
"Slow down, cowboys" -- that's what Senator Kamala Harris (D-California) said when prosecutors in her office wanted to bring a case against companies that let apps download someone's entire address book, because surely that's a complete violation of ...
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a16z Podcast: Modernizing Government Services, From Food Stamps to Foster CareFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-06-07 13:58
When people think of modernizing government, they tend to think of new IT, of improved procurement, of new infrastructure ... rather than social services like foster care or food stamps. But how can we actually help improve daily lives -- less in the...
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a16z Podcast: The Law (and Tech) of WarfareFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-06-04 20:17
Rules, guidelines, regulations, and “laws” are all sometimes used interchangeably — but what’s legal and what isn’t is far more complex when it comes to policy, especially when politics (and technology) enters the picture. Take encryption for instanc...
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a16z Podcast: The Living MuseumFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-05-29 22:58
Every industry (for-profit, non-profit, government, private-sector) has been touched by tech, with most trying to lead the charge in order to stay ahead. But museums and memorials, by definition, lag rather than lead there. How is that changing as vi...
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a16z Podcast: Giving and Getting Feedback -- for Bosses and EmployeesFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-05-26 21:41
There's feedback and there's guidance; there's praise and there's criticism. All of it is important to do better work, but to develop a better and more productive workplace and relationships -- especially given how much time we spend at work! -- the ...
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a16z Podcast: What Technology Wants, Needs, DoesFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-05-23 03:13
Turnabout is fair play: That's true in politics, and it's true at Andreessen Horowitz given our internal (and very opinionated!) culture of debate -- where we often agree to disagree, or more often, disagree to agree. So in this special "turnabout" e...
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a16z Podcast: Tech Policy and the CourtsFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-05-22 02:32
Discussions and headlines around tech policy tend to be dominated by what the President and the White House (aka the executive branch of the government) and what the Senate and House of Representatives (aka the legislative branch) are saying and doin...
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a16z Podcast: The Blockchain, in CongressFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-05-20 15:34
There’s an interesting paradox when it comes to the U.S. government and tech: Either they’re an inventor, early adopter, and buyer of emerging new tech … or they’re a very late adopter (as in the case of government officials using Blackberries vs. iP...
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a16z Podcast: For Your Ears OnlyFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-05-18 02:07
When it comes to spycraft — or rather, “tradecraft,” as they say in the biz — what do the movies get right, and what do they get wrong? In this episode of the a16z Podcast, Michael Morell — former Deputy Director and twice-Acting Director of the CIA ...
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a16z Podcast: From Jobs to Flying CarsFrom 🇺🇸 a16z Podcast, published at 2017-05-15 21:53
In this lively conversation -- from our recent annual tech and policy summit in Washington, D.C. -- Axios' Dan Primack interviews a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen about the two major narratives dominating discussions about the tech industry right now:...