Big Data is evolving. It’s moving from the sole domain of the high priests of data science, to something that practically every organization -- big and small -- and every group within that organization can get its hands on. So what happens now? The i...

Regulation always lags behind technology, but by 80-plus years?! U.S. Representatives Fred Upton and Greg Walden -- of the Energy and Commerce Committee including the subcommittee on Communications and Technology that oversees almost every technology...

When most people think of big data they think of numbers, but it turns out that a lot of big data -- a lot of the output of our work and activity as humans in fact -- is in the form of words. So what can we learn when we apply machine learning and na...

Bitcoin has had more than its share of drama. There is, of course, the mystery surrounding its anonymous founder (or perhaps, founders) Satoshi Nakamoto. More recently, there's been a battle over whether the size of blocks need to grow to account for...

Just a few years ago if you were mayor of Washington D.C. –- or any other city -- you didn’t have to wrap your head around the likes of Airbnb, Lyft, and other companies in the fast-growing 'sharing economy'. They didn’t exist. Now, you have no choic...

There is a gap between the technology industry and the fastest growing portion of today’s workforce and the workforce of the future: Latinos -- argue U.S. Representatives Loretta Sanchez (California) and Ruben Gallego (Arizona), both members of Congr...

In this special international edition of the a16z Podcast, Mohsen Malayeri, co-founder of Avatech -- one of the more prominent startup accelerators in Iran among many (much like Y Combinator in the U.S.) -- talks to guest interviewer Christopher Schr...

In this special international edition of the a16z Podcast, Nazanin Daneshvar, co-founder and CEO of Takhfifan, the "Groupon of Iran", shares her experiences and broader observations about the startup ecosystem and tech infrastructure in Iran with gue...

One of the most active and fastest growing open source big data cluster computing projects is Apache Spark, which was originally developed at U.C. Berkeley's AMPLab and is now used by internet giants and other companies around the world. Including, a...

Investing to make a return both financial AND societal isn't new, but the opportunities to reach and build businesses in communities that have been underserved by tech are larger than ever. One example is the business opportunity presented by hairsty...

"This time is different." But it's always different! So what's going on now in the public markets? Why does this even matter? For one thing, tech markets have grown significantly. And one big reason is internet and mobile. It's like a multiplier for ...

Pick your metaphor: Smartphones are "remote controls" for the physical world, or perhaps, as Steve Cheney argues, they're "cursors for the physical world". Either way, it's clear that the age of mobile is here, GPS is not enough, and with sensors al...

Every meeting a busy founder takes is time away from building the company. So it’s understandable why engaging corporate development groups is believed to be a waste of time, unless you’re selling your company. But... there ARE good reasons to engag...

Apple’s annual developer conference is cranking away in San Francisco, and a16z’s Benedict Evans examines the latest from the world’s most valuable company in this segment of the pod. Software is the star of WWDC and Apple highlighted updates to iOS ...

Is the Apple Watch breaking new technological ground, or just another accessory for your iPhone? a16z’s Benedict Evans and Board Partner Steven Sinofsky describe their experience with the Apple Watch one month after strapping the elegant piece of ele...

Distributed computing frameworks like Hadoop and Spark have enabled processing of "big data" sets -- but that's not enough for modeling surprise/rare "black swan" or complex events. Just think of scenarios in disaster planning (earthquakes, terrorist...

with Justin Bailey (@justinbailey12d), Herman Narula (@hermannarula), Tim Schafer (@timoflegend) and Sonal Chokshi (@smc90) We know that the gaming industry -- in some ways like but in other ways unlike the music industry -- has been changing due to...

Google is a vast machine learning company. If you think about it in those terms, says Benedict Evans, every product and feature Google builds is an expression of its machine learning expertise -- or a way to distribute it, and provide easier access t...

If there’s one business on planet earth that makes Silicon Valley look sober and level-headed it’s Hollywood, says Marc Andreessen. Hollywood and Silicon Valley meet in this segment of the pod which features Andreessen in conversation with Brian Graz...

"Fit" is this squishy idea that a person, role, and company are a perfect match. But how do you tease out expectations and motivations from both sides of the hiring equation -- candidates and founding CEOs alike? In this segment of the a16z Podcast,...