20VC: a16z's David George on Leading a16z's Growth Fund Today, The Biggest Misconceptions of Growth Investing, How a16z Think Through Portfolio Construction, Investment Decision-Making and Scenario Planning & How The Entrance of New Players Has Changed

**Harry Stebbings** (0:00)
Welcome back to 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and what an episode we have in store for you today. I just love doing this one. It's one where the chat really completely went off-piste, and we didn't stick to the schedule at all, but always the sign of a great conversation. So I'm thrilled to welcome David George, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he leads their growth investing practice. Since joining in 2019, David has invested in the likes of Clubhouse, Coinbase, Databricks, Figma, Instacart, Robinhood, and TripActions, to name a few. David also sits on the board of Current, Greenlight, and WorkRise. And prior to Andreessen, David spent seven years growth investing at General Atlantic, where he invested in the likes of Airbnb, CrowdStrike, Opendoor, Slack, and Uber, again, just naming a few. I'd also want to say a huge thank you to Ariel at TripActions, and Ali at Databricks in particular. Some amazing questions and suggestions from them, and I so appreciated that. But before we move into the show today, I have to say I just love using AngelList's Fund Admin Platform to manage my investments. The team and the platform at AngelList takes care of all my back-office needs so that I can focus on working with great founders. Leading fund managers have made over 10,000 investments into 6,000 startups via AngelList, all online and all in one place. And with the recently announced Rolling Funds, you can easily find and invest in these top fund managers on angellist.com forward slash Rolling. And let's face it, this new world of remote work is here to stay. And so are all of the new headaches that come with running a remote team though, which is a nightmare. Rippling though helps fast growing startups automate their HR and their IT. And now they're making it super easy to manage employees and contractors anywhere. When you hire people in new states, Rippling can now automatically register your startup with each state tax agency and keep you compliant with all the different local labor laws. From there, Rippling lets you onboard new hires in literally 90 seconds. You can instantly set up people's payrolls, benefits and all their apps like Slack and GitHub. So if you're looking for an easier way to run your startup remotely, or just a better way to manage your HR and IT, visit rippling.com forward slash 20VC. And finally, did you know that there'll be 1.4 million job openings for developers in 2021? That's where my friends at Terminal come in. Terminal helps fast growing companies build remote, high-performing tech teams. By connecting you with elite global talent and owning end-to-end processes from hiring to onboarding to remote teams integration, Terminal delivers the product building powerhouse your business needs to grow. From work spaces to on the ground support, they take the guesswork out of remote management so that you can just thrive. But don't take my word for it. Take the word of high-growth businesses like Gusto, Chime, Hims, all trusting Terminal with their remote teams. And you can find out more today at terminal.io. But without further ado, I'm now so excited to hand over to David George, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz.
You have now arrived at your destination.
David, it's such a joy to have you on the show today, my friend. I do want to start by saying a huge thank you to Angela Strange on your team and Ali at Databricks for some brilliant question suggestions. But thank you so much for joining me today, David.

**David George** (2:59)
Hey, thanks for having me, Harry. I've listened to part of Bunch and love what you've done with it.

**Harry Stebbings** (3:03)
Well, thank you so much. I still can't believe I actually get paid to talk to people like you, so it's a pretty crazy life. But I do want to start with some context. So tell me, how did you make your way into the world of venture and come to be leading Andreessen's Growth Fund today?

**David George** (3:15)
Yeah, so look, I grew up in Kentucky, very far away from the world of finance and technology. I was very fortunate. I had an awesome upbringing. My parents, I had an older brother. Went to college at Notre Dame thinking I was going to be a lawyer.
Thankfully, I went into the finance industry out of school instead. Eventually, I moved to San Francisco in 2008, where I started to first encounter the world of tech. And I joined General Atlantic about 10 years ago. At GA, I had the chance to invest in some amazing companies. Spent about seven years there. Companies like CrowdStrike, Uber, Airbnb, Opendoor, Slack, and then some others that are a little bit lesser known, but really awesome companies like Benevite and Seismic. I came over to A16Z to start and run our new growth fund about two and a half years ago. Initially got to know some of the folks at the firm just from some overlapping investments that we had. So I think I knew Alex Rampell the best because we had invested together in Opendoor. And fast forward to now, we're investing from our second growth fund here. I've had the chance to build a great team inside the firm and work with some awesome founders and companies here as well.