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I'm excited to be taking on the role as General Partner @a16zcrypto! A huge thank you to @cdixon, @alive_, @AriannaSimpson, @eddylazzarin, and team for their support.
When I joined our team almost five years ago, I believed that crypto was the best way to build new networks on the Internet. In the time since, blockchains have become fast, cheap, and ubiquitous. Today they’re still used by a relatively small group of people, with more than 40M mobile wallets users and 25,000 active developers (source).
In the next five years, I’m most excited about capital, information, and energy as the networks that crypto can supercharge. I’ll focus on investing in DeFi, DePIN, and the infrastructure powering those applications to bring finance and physical infrastructure onchain.
If you’re building in those spaces, please get in touch. I am thrilled to continue supporting founders building the future of the internet here at a16z crypto.
When I joined our team almost five years ago, I believed that crypto was the best way to build new networks on the Internet. In the time since, blockchains have become fast, cheap, and ubiquitous. Today they’re still used by a relatively small group of people, with more than 40M mobile wallets users and 25,000 active developers (source).
In the next five years, I’m most excited about capital, information, and energy as the networks that crypto can supercharge. I’ll focus on investing in DeFi, DePIN, and the infrastructure powering those applications to bring finance and physical infrastructure onchain.
If you’re building in those spaces, please get in touch. I am thrilled to continue supporting founders building the future of the internet here at a16z crypto.
Today we are excited to announce that we are promoting Guy Wuollet (@guywuolletjr) to General Partner.
We first met Guy in 2018 while he was studying computer science at Stanford, where he also rowed varsity crew. He initially joined the firm as an intern working on the enterprise go-to-market team, but it soon became clear he was most passionate about crypto.
We kept running into Guy: first when he joined our Crypto Startup Accelerator to build a decentralized ISP, then while doing research at Protocol Labs, and finally as a teaching assistant for our research partner @danboneh.
After joining us full-time in 2020, Guy began investing in infrastructure, DeFi, and DePIN. He has been a steady and creative force, making significant contributions to more than 20 investments, including Solana, LayerZero, Gensyn, EigenLayer, Daylight, and Morpho.
Based on insights from prior investments like Orchid, Nym, and Helium, Guy defined our thesis on what would become known as DePIN. He wrote one of the defining blogs on why DePIN matters and helped us invest in Gensyn. Next he wrote about decentralized energy and led our investment in Daylight. Guy also invested in decentralized transportation, robotics, and AI projects as he helped run our accelerator.
DeFi has always been central to Guy’s thesis, but his early investment in Morpho was driven above all by conviction in the founders. He recognized in @PaulFrambot and his team a rare combination of technical depth and clarity of vision. Since then, Morpho has grown to billions in total value locked and become one of the leading protocols in DeFi. Their V2 launch marked a major leap forward in efficiency and scale for on-chain lending.
Through his work with founders, Guy has shown a rare mix of deep technical expertise and thoughtful pragmatism. Founders often tell me how impressed they are that Guy systematically reads, understands, and provides useful feedback on protocol design and other hard technical topics. His writing and advice on token and protocol design have helped influence many projects in our portfolio.
Beyond his investing skills, Guy has been a calm and positive presence, with a wry sense of humor, both inside the firm and for founders. As the crypto team grew from a small group to more than 80 people, he helped recruit and mentor many of the talented investors, researchers, and operators who make the team what it is today.
Guy is an invaluable member of the team, and it has been great to see him grow and develop over the last five years.
Guy joins me, @alive_, and @AriannaSimpson as @a16zcrypto’s fourth General Partner.
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Guy Wuollet retweeted
Patch or Die!
Today we sent the following out to the CEOs in our portfolio regarding the widespread vulnerabilities that have been detected by AI agents:
The previous week should make it obvious that things have changed. Vulnerabilities are being discovered and exploited at a rate that has never been seen before. While there has been a flood of new vulnerabilities AI agents are being adopted at scale multiplying the potential risk. Agents not only help automate the attacker lifecycle, every ai agent is an insider threat. Your environments are designed to withstand attacks from the outside, not from within. As such, we are suggesting company leaders consider the following changes:
1 - Ensure you're sufficiently staffed for security. The average enterprise allocates roughly 10% of its tech spend to security. Consider doubling that. There are likely thousands of vulnerabilities that need fixing in your environments. Security through obscurity no longer works, all that can be exploited will be exploited.
2 - Establish a zero tolerance policy for secuirty bugs in new features and product releases. Re-examine launch and release schedules and consider delays to ensure all vulnerabilities are patched before deploying new features or products.
3 - Double tap the zombies. Find all old legacy environments that have been neglected and turn them off. Labs, test environments, zombie CI/CD projects etc. Turn it off for now. If it isn’t tied to revenue, kill it.
4 - End the risk acceptance process. Over the last 10 years the risk acceptance process has morphed from a way to accept risks to enable the business, to a way to justify never fixing security issues. Adopt a zero tolerance policy for security issues and risks.
Today we sent the following out to the CEOs in our portfolio regarding the widespread vulnerabilities that have been detected by AI agents:
The previous week should make it obvious that things have changed. Vulnerabilities are being discovered and exploited at a rate that has never been seen before. While there has been a flood of new vulnerabilities AI agents are being adopted at scale multiplying the potential risk. Agents not only help automate the attacker lifecycle, every ai agent is an insider threat. Your environments are designed to withstand attacks from the outside, not from within. As such, we are suggesting company leaders consider the following changes:
1 - Ensure you're sufficiently staffed for security. The average enterprise allocates roughly 10% of its tech spend to security. Consider doubling that. There are likely thousands of vulnerabilities that need fixing in your environments. Security through obscurity no longer works, all that can be exploited will be exploited.
2 - Establish a zero tolerance policy for secuirty bugs in new features and product releases. Re-examine launch and release schedules and consider delays to ensure all vulnerabilities are patched before deploying new features or products.
3 - Double tap the zombies. Find all old legacy environments that have been neglected and turn them off. Labs, test environments, zombie CI/CD projects etc. Turn it off for now. If it isn’t tied to revenue, kill it.
4 - End the risk acceptance process. Over the last 10 years the risk acceptance process has morphed from a way to accept risks to enable the business, to a way to justify never fixing security issues. Adopt a zero tolerance policy for security issues and risks.
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Great panel with @brian__foster and @MuyaoShen at @money2020.
It’s about bringing finance onto the internet. A lot of finance still runs on Excel spreadsheets, and it’s no longer about tradfi or DeFi, it’s about making finance move at the speed of the internet.
On the crypto the words we use to meet traditional finance where they are. DeFi and decentralization doesn’t mean a ton yet but reducing counter party risk does.
It was great to be onstage at Money2020 to help that translation process.
It’s about bringing finance onto the internet. A lot of finance still runs on Excel spreadsheets, and it’s no longer about tradfi or DeFi, it’s about making finance move at the speed of the internet.
On the crypto the words we use to meet traditional finance where they are. DeFi and decentralization doesn’t mean a ton yet but reducing counter party risk does.
It was great to be onstage at Money2020 to help that translation process.
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How does the apartment rental market in the technology capital of the world still rely on Craigslist?
Can devs do something?
Can devs do something?
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"an idiot in motion is better than a genius at rest"
god forbid a genius gets a lil motion
god forbid a genius gets a lil motion
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Love this.
“Well adjusted” used to mean “normal” is one of the most interesting phrases to me.
It implies that to be a normal person you must adjust yourself from your default state and from who you truly are.
I think more people should be unadjusted.
“Well adjusted” used to mean “normal” is one of the most interesting phrases to me.
It implies that to be a normal person you must adjust yourself from your default state and from who you truly are.
I think more people should be unadjusted.
“Language exists so that we can get at the truth”
Adam Delehanty (@adam__xyz) is obsessed with the unspoken rules that shape everyday language. Sometimes these words make things more confusing, not less. We talk about two: “partner” and “dude”.
Adam is Founder and CEO at Ghost, ing agency for founders, investors and brands.
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I think the notion of a company having a “moat” is very misleading.
A moat defends a castle from a stationary position.
I like the idea that companies are like ships, with their strengths more akin to large sails.
This also makes more sense to explain why certain well positioned companies succeed when the market (the winds) moves in a particular direction.
A moat defends a castle from a stationary position.
I like the idea that companies are like ships, with their strengths more akin to large sails.
This also makes more sense to explain why certain well positioned companies succeed when the market (the winds) moves in a particular direction.
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I always thought the historical 2-4% GDP growth was bottlenecked by technological innovation.
I am increasingly convinced 2-4% is roughly the amount of change American society has been able to tolerate.
This means incredible things for anyone able to adapt at a faster rate
I am increasingly convinced 2-4% is roughly the amount of change American society has been able to tolerate.
This means incredible things for anyone able to adapt at a faster rate
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There seem to be two(?) reactions to AI progress in the sciences:
1. Anger that the human role in knowledge production is being augmented
2. Excitement that we'll have more knowledge and capability
(1) seems like an individual woe, while (2) is good for everyone
1. Anger that the human role in knowledge production is being augmented
2. Excitement that we'll have more knowledge and capability
(1) seems like an individual woe, while (2) is good for everyone
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How does a company allocate token budget to it's employees?
One interesting analogy is to how multi-strat hedge funds allocate balance sheet amongst different pods.
I think there are multiple startups to be built in this space. Let me know if you're building something here.
One interesting analogy is to how multi-strat hedge funds allocate balance sheet amongst different pods.
I think there are multiple startups to be built in this space. Let me know if you're building something here.
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Most pants don't fit.
Blame Hedi Slimane (nominate determinism much?) for the rise of slim everything.
T shirts are also now too long because they are meant to fit with pants worn at the hip instead of the waist.
Blame Hedi Slimane (nominate determinism much?) for the rise of slim everything.
T shirts are also now too long because they are meant to fit with pants worn at the hip instead of the waist.
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If the biggest expense for most modern businesses shifts from salaries to inference spend, it feels like there's a cool opportunity to build a new financing model.
Someone should be providing capital in the form of convertible debt (?) to early non-venture businesses and form a holding company that pays out dividends overtime from successful products.
A very SSG like opportunity that's nicely counterpositioned against the all or nothing venture model.
If you're building this I'd love to talk to you.
Someone should be providing capital in the form of convertible debt (?) to early non-venture businesses and form a holding company that pays out dividends overtime from successful products.
A very SSG like opportunity that's nicely counterpositioned against the all or nothing venture model.
If you're building this I'd love to talk to you.
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Where are all of the networks?
Most of the great AI companies so far seem to be single player, scale economies businesses.
What are the networks being built right now? OpenRouter a notable exception
Most of the great AI companies so far seem to be single player, scale economies businesses.
What are the networks being built right now? OpenRouter a notable exception
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In case you’re curious about my internal monologue, @rhackett did an excellent job extracting it.
Here are my thoughts on crypto growing up and the future of financial markets.
Here are my thoughts on crypto growing up and the future of financial markets.
Crypto succeeds when we stop calling it crypto.
GP @guywuolletjr thinks financial services will run on blockchains, just like other businesses now run on the internet. So what gets us there?
00:00 "Everything is computer — except finance"
00:52 From a16z intern to general o moves into the mainstream
19:28 Why timing matters for crypto adoption
23:31 Token launches, liquidity, and going public
28:20 Backing founders for the long term
36:21 Opportunities in crypto
38:42 New markets for energy and compute
39:49 Stablecoins and finance’s digital transformation
43:29 Why perpetual futures are gaining traction
45:26 What tokenization changes for Wall Street
49:04 On oil painting and the pleasure of making things
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Guy Wuollet retweeted
Crypto succeeds when we stop calling it crypto.
GP @guywuolletjr thinks financial services will run on blockchains, just like other businesses now run on the internet. So what gets us there?
00:00 "Everything is computer — except finance"
00:52 From a16z intern to general o moves into the mainstream
19:28 Why timing matters for crypto adoption
23:31 Token launches, liquidity, and going public
28:20 Backing founders for the long term
36:21 Opportunities in crypto
38:42 New markets for energy and compute
39:49 Stablecoins and finance’s digital transformation
43:29 Why perpetual futures are gaining traction
45:26 What tokenization changes for Wall Street
49:04 On oil painting and the pleasure of making things
GP @guywuolletjr thinks financial services will run on blockchains, just like other businesses now run on the internet. So what gets us there?
00:00 "Everything is computer — except finance"
00:52 From a16z intern to general o moves into the mainstream
19:28 Why timing matters for crypto adoption
23:31 Token launches, liquidity, and going public
28:20 Backing founders for the long term
36:21 Opportunities in crypto
38:42 New markets for energy and compute
39:49 Stablecoins and finance’s digital transformation
43:29 Why perpetual futures are gaining traction
45:26 What tokenization changes for Wall Street
49:04 On oil painting and the pleasure of making things
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