a16z Podcast: Is Entrepreneurship a Universal Language?
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 Schroeder (former entrepreneur, D.C. investor, and author of Startup Rising) about startups in Iran. What happens when you have a "mobile-first" startup ecosystem? Is this about trying to be yet another Silicon Valley (and if so, are we just substituting a form of technocracy for theocracy)? Silicon Valley isn't a religion, observes Malayeri, but entrepreneurship IS "a common language which has no border". This is the third installment in a special series on tech startups in Iran, part of a larger theme around global tech and how software -- including mobile -- is eating the world … and creating new opportunities within it.
1 Juli 201542min
a16z Podcast: Layering Tech and Culture in Iran
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 guest interviewer Christopher Schroeder (former entrepreneur, D.C. investor, and author of Startup Rising). How did she do it? (Hint: With a bit of subterfuge and clever cloaking.)What are the attitudes toward failure in a time and place where startups aren't really considered a real thing? This is the second installment in a special series on tech startups in Iran, part of a larger theme around global tech and how software -- including mobile -- is eating the world … and creating new opportunities within it.
30 Juni 201519min
a16z Podcast: A Conversation With the Inventor of Spark
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, as announced most recently, IBM. In this Q&A with Spark inventor Matei Zaharia -- also the CTO and co-founder of Databricks (and a professor at MIT) -- on the heels of the recent Spark Summit, we cover the difference between Hadoop MapReduce and Spark; what are the ingredients of a successful open source project; and the story of how Spark almost helped a friend win a million dollars.
24 Juni 201519min
a16z Podcast: Investing in Communities
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 hairstylist platform Mayvenn, which a16z recently backed. In this segment of the a16z Podcast, Kesha Cash (founder and general partner of the Impact America Fund, also an investor in Mayvenn) discusses how she puts her fund’s money to work in markets that target underserved Americans. Cash is joined by a16z’s Tawny Holguin (who leads our seed and early scouting efforts) to breakdown the intricacies -- and opportunities -- of so-called “impact investing.” Do core business principles change at all? But then how does impact get measured? And what happens when you connect more communities to tech?
22 Juni 201524min
a16z Podcast: Location, Location, Location -- and Mobile
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 all around us -- both outdoors and in indoor locations -- it's finally time for truly context-aware computing. But what will that take, both content- and design-wise -- is it all just about eliminating friction? And how are players like Apple and Google positioning themselves for this micro-mapped world? a16z's Benedict Evans and Estimote's Steve Cheney talk about these questions and more in this episode of the a16z Podcast...
11 Juni 201522min
a16z Podcast: Dealing with Corporate Dealmakers -- When to Talk to Corp Dev
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 engage corporate development. You just have to know when, and how. And what to avoid! On this episode of the a16z Podcast, operating partner Jamie McGurk, and Tyson Clark and James Loftus (veterans of corporate development from companies like Google, Oracle, and Yahoo) share advice for founders talking to corporate development.
10 Juni 201522min
a16z Podcast: Apple Gets Its Music Streaming and Gives News Another Try
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 and OS X, but the big news was in part Apple News -- a curation and aggregation app for periodicals. Newsstand, Apple’s earlier attempt to tackle news outlets on your Apple device didn’t catch on, but Evans gives Apple News a better chance. And Apple Music? “It was a bit wooly, frankly,” Evans says. Translation: it didn’t amaze. Evans explains why.
10 Juni 201526min
