Founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz (known as “a16z”) is a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, California, that backs bold entrepreneurs building the future through technology. We are stage agnostic: We invest in seed to late-stage technology companies, across the consumer, enterprise, bio/healthcare, crypto, and fintech spaces. a16z has $18.8B in assets under management across multiple funds, including the $1.4B Bio funds, the $3.1B Crypto funds, and the Cultural Leadership Fund.
We’ve established a team that is defined by respect for the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial company building process. We’ve invested in companies like Airbnb, Apeel, Coinbase, Figma, Freenome, Instacart, Lyft, Slack, and Stripe. Our team is at the forefront of new technology, helping entrepreneurs and their companies impact and change the world.
The Role
a16z is seeking to recruit a Deal Partner to join the firm’s Crypto team. The successful candidate will work closely with General Partners in driving all aspects of investments, including defining segments of interest, sourcing investment opportunities, due diligence; specifically providing a detailed analysis in picking startups. The successful candidate will play an impactful role in a highly collaborative, dynamic and entrepreneurial firm. We hire for strengths and superpowers, with a belief that the best teams draw their exceptionalism from these unique, yet complementary, individuals.
The primary goal of the crypto team is to find and invest in bold entrepreneurs building the best protocols, companies, and DAOs.
Responsibilities Include
- Source investment opportunities. A Deal Partner is expected to invest first and foremost in relationships. This includes proactive involvement in the crypto community — attending industry events, meeting with upstream investors, and cultivating university/corporate networks to find entrepreneurs and access deal flow
- Develop a sharp investment point of view on categories and companies. A Deal Partner is expected to create and defend an informed thesis for why we should invest in a company or segment. This thesis should be supported by a deep analysis of both broad industry trends and granular data. The Partner is expected to present and defend their thesis and any supporting analysis to the crypto team and general partnership, as well as actively contribute to any investment discussion.
- Identify and win deals. Because of the liquid nature of cryptocurrency markets, some of the most potentially attractive opportunities may involve live protocols and tradeable cryptocurrencies. A Deal Partner is expected to isolate signal from noise in the markets to identify the best on and off chain opportunities the firm should capitalize on. Further, they should be comfortable selling the value of a16z to entrepreneurs in order to win a competitive deal.
- Lead comprehensive diligence. A Deal Partner is expected to conduct a detailed and comprehensive review of the people, products, technologies, go-to-market plan, competitive position, and other relevant information to maximize chances of success for any investment we make.
- Maintain industry awareness. A Deal Partner will develop a network of sources and information to ensure up-to-date understanding of the crypto industry. This includes growing a network of subject matter experts and leveraging an in-house data science team. This also includes interacting with non-crypto companies to understand their strategy, and the opportunities & challenges that presents to startups in this space.
- Contribute to “thought leadership” pieces: The Deal Partner will work with the General Partners and the rest of the team to co-author and create thought pieces — in the form of blog posts, podcasts, presentations, YouTube videos, etc — for general consumption as well as for more specific audiences (e.g. corporations visiting the firm, press, analysts, etc).
To Join Our Team, You Should Be Excited To
- Build and cultivate long-term relationships
- Demonstrate passion about the Crypto space; fascinated with the startup ecosystem, new markets, and new ways of doing things
- Display intellectual commitment to discover what others do not
- Synthesize vast amounts of data and resolve what really matters
- Quantitative analysis; observe retention rates and customer cohorts
- Sift through large customer data sets to identify strengths and weaknesses of a startup
Minimum Qualifications
- 4–6+ years of experience working in crypto or tech as an engineer, designer, data scientist, product manager, researcher, or consultant
- Outstanding analytical and quantitative skills
- Genuine intellectual curiosity, the ability to learn new facts and concepts quickly and comprehensively, then explain those facts & concepts to other people succinctly
- Ability to synthesize complex information, form a sharp point of view, and communicate it in a relevant way to different audiences
- Effective communications skills, both verbal and written
- Excellent attention to detail and follow-through
- Ability to juggle multiple items and work on tight deadlines
- Desire and proven ability to learn new domains and technologies quickly
- Energetic positive attitude
- Deeply optimistic conviction about the future of crypto and the Internet
a16z culture
- We do only first class business and only in a first
- class way
- We take a long view of relationships, because we are
- in the relationship business
- We believe in the future and bet the firm that way
- We are all different, we recognize that, and we win
- We celebrate the good times
- We do it for the team
- We play to win
If interested, please apply here.
