“We call it the reverse pitch, actually, where an entrepreneur would pitch us and then we would bring the team in and we would do the reverse pitch to them”
David Senra · a16z's First Employee on the History of a16z, Venture Capital & Fixing the Government | Scott Kupor
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What was described
implemented a "reverse pitch" where entrepreneurs pitch the firm first, then the firm presents its team and resources to the entrepreneur
Said nearby on the same subject
“We call it the reverse pitch athlete. Like where an entrepreneur would pitch us and then we would bring the team in and we would do the reverse pitch to them to say, hey, look, if you work with Andreessen Horowitz, not only do you get me, Ben Horowitz as your board member, but you get this entire table of...”
“We started something called Dogpatch Labs, which was a really, really cool office that we gave a bunch of entrepreneurs space. Those entrepreneurs included Instagram literally launched in that building.”
“I spend most of my time with entrepreneurs. I spend most of my time being relevant to a 25 or 30-year-old. I can sit behind my desk and talk at them, or I can just mostly meet a lot of them and listen. I never speak at financial conferences. I only talk to entrepreneurs.”
“And then as we're going along, each step of the way, I'm going to recite back to the entrepreneur or to the management team, okay, here's what I'm hearing. Do I understand this correct? Great. Let's move on.”