The Secret Marketing Strategy That Built a16z: From Zero to Legendary VC Firm

**Ben Horowitz** (0:00)
I cause a lot of antagonism between us and the other firms in those days.

**Margit Wennmachers** (0:03)
Your filter is like, you're going to get the deal or I'm going to get the deal. You die or I die.

**Marc Andreessen** (0:08)
And they're not exactly shrinking violence themselves.

**Ben Horowitz** (0:10)
They hated that cover story. Look at him on the cover of the magazine, that's not supposed to be him, that's supposed to be the entrepreneur. What the hell? I mean, they just like lost it on that.

**Margit Wennmachers** (0:21)
They didn't have any entrepreneurs at the time.

**Ben Horowitz** (0:25)
VC was like a big secret. And then actually building companies was a big secret. And so just kind of talking about it was a big differentiator.

**Margit Wennmachers** (0:33)
We don't have products.

**Ben Horowitz** (0:35)
Yeah, we have products.

**Margit Wennmachers** (0:36)
We have people and ideas, that's it.

**Marc Andreessen** (0:39)
The content here is for informational purposes only, should not be taken as legal business tax or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security and is not directed at any investor or potential investors in any a16z fund. Please note that a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed in this podcast. For more details, including a link to our investments, please see a16z.com/disclosures.

**Ben Horowitz** (1:08)
All right. Welcome to the a16z. What are we on? The Marc and Ben Show. Welcome to the Marc and Ben Show. Today, we've got Margit Wennmachers, the legendary. Head of marketing for a16z for the last 16 years. And she is going to tell us the story of all that. You've heard snippets of it from me and Marc over the years, but now we're going to hear the real thing from the real person, Margit. Welcome.

**Margit Wennmachers** (1:33)
Thank you so much for having me, guys. I'm thrilled to be here. But between the legendary and the 15 or 16, I feel kind of ancient.

**Ben Horowitz** (1:41)
Wise.

**Marc Andreessen** (1:42)
Wise. Wise. Wise.

**Ben Horowitz** (1:44)
No, it's getting us all. It's very rough.

**Margit Wennmachers** (1:46)
I know. It's just a bitch that way.

**Ben Horowitz** (1:48)
So maybe we could start with when we met. I'd love to hear it from your perspective.
Where were we at? Hobie's? I think it was the Creamery. The Creamery.

**Margit Wennmachers** (1:57)
The Creamery, which at that point was your office.

**Ben Horowitz** (2:00)
Yeah. I forget. Yeah, the firm started at the Creamery. That's right.

**Margit Wennmachers** (2:03)
Right. Exactly. So a certain someone who shall go nameless, tried to hire Outkast, and Facebook invoked a conflict of interest. You know exactly who that is, right? And so that certain someone called Marc, and said, just call Marc Zuckerberg, and I think you have better things to do, that pull a favor from Marc Zuckerberg to go like, why don't you like this, whatever. Anyhow, but I think you asked for my e-mail address. And so that's how we were introduced. And then I was told to go to the Creamery, the waiter at the Creamery, he's like, go be it here. They're meeting with some democratic functionaries or something like that. So I wait there with my little capabilities presentation. And I had met you like years before, but no recollection, I had not met you, I'd heard about you a little bit. So I go there with my capabilities presentation, I sit down, the democrats left the booth, and I sit down, you basically were just looking straight ahead. You were just like, I don't know what you were thinking about, but it was not that.

**Ben Horowitz** (3:01)
Probably how we get the firm off, how we raise the money.

**Margit Wennmachers** (3:05)
And then Marc grabs the capabilities business, which was generic, because I had no idea why I was there, right? So and you go, okay, so how do you pick the clients and you're the clients and why those clients are not these clients and teams, whatever, like detailed questions. So I got a little grilling and then you both said thank you and I left. And I concluded that it was probably because you were Angel Investing at the time and you had just left HP. I was like, maybe they just want to have somebody they can recommend to their angel portfolio.

**Marc Andreessen** (3:33)
Yeah, right, right.

**Margit Wennmachers** (3:34)
And then a few months later, we met at the Rosewood, I think? No, it was not. Was it the Rosewood?

**Marc Andreessen** (3:40)
We were there a lot.

**Margit Wennmachers** (3:41)
So anyhow, and then you guys were like, okay, so we're going to start this firm and top secret blah, blah, blah. I'm going to start this firm and it's going to be the two of us, $300 million. And this is at a certain time where money was kind of tight.