Startups aren't spreadsheets! So instead of getting stuck on vanity metrics or a single number, a16z general partner Andrew Chen shares a broader framework for evaluating growth in a startup or new product. Besides observing how the growth ecosystem has evolved beyond "growth hacks", Chen also offers some central ideas -- from a growth accounting framework to specific feedback loops. Is it working? Will it sustain or even accelerate? This deck shares a more predictive conceptual model for all things growth. 
read or download the deck here

One of the greatest challenges founders face in early markets is going from product to sales -- specifically, a repeatable sales process. Especially since most products released in an emerging market land with a dull thud, and it’s up to the company to figure out how to sell it. From redefining the word "sales" to who sells and how, these are some of the mental landmarks -- misconceptions to avoid, rules of thumb -- that a16z general partner Martin Casado (co-founder of Nicira, GM at VMware) used as a former tech founder with a product line that now has an over billion-dollar run rate.
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In what Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called “the best defense of crypto I’ve heard”, a16z crypto general partner Katie Haun debunks three common myths about crypto, and then debates (moderated by journalist Rodrigo Pacheco as part of a live event hosted in Mexico City) Krugman, who asks, what problem does crypto solve?   
watch these videos on YouTube

• 3 common myths people have about crypto
• a skeptic's take on crypto, from the point of view of monetary economics
• debating crypto: Katie vs. Krugman

After being diagnosed with prostate cancer, late Intel CEO Andy Grove was frustrated by what he described as the “lack of real output” in the healthcare industry -- especially as compared to the drive of Moore’s Law in the tech industry. But that's a naive view from Silicon Valley outsiders, argued a pharma industry commenter, because “medical research is different [and harder] than semiconductor research". Because we didn’t build biology... it evolved. Yet the fact that we are still discovering biology doesn’t mean that we can’t design and engineer the tools we use to manage biology, argues a16z bio fund general partner Vijay Pande. Here's how. 
read this article in Scientific American

From the 10th anniversary of the Bitcoin whitepaper to IBM acquiring RedHat, here are some tweets and pieces from the archives, as well as a16z Podcasts on recent books:

• thread on software-related forum posts through the years
• article on why there will never be another Red Hat 
• podcast on research to startups (and vice versa), with former Stanford president John Hennessy
• podcast on new upstarts in an old industry, with CAA cofounder Michael Ovitz