A16Z's core capability is shilling and pumping.

Original Title: "a16z is a Media Company"

Original Source: Funeral AI

Today’s top VCs are, in essence, media companies.

a16z is the best proof of this.

In 2009, a16z founder Marc Andreessen defined the company at its inception as—a media company that profits through investment.

At the time, this positioning was radical. But as of 2025, it has proven to be the most accurate prediction of the VC industry’s future.

Because attention is scarcer than fiat currency.

Fiat currency can be overissued, but everyone only has a dozen or so hours of waking time each day. With attention alone, you can only do traffic business—celebrity livestream sales operate on this logic.

But attention plus trust becomes influence. Influence is the truly monetizable scarce asset.

There are only two fully legal places in the world where influence can be monetized: one is the crypto space, the other is the primary market.

Sun Yuchen is criticized for hype in crypto, while a16z does similar things in the primary market and is revered as a benchmark.

So, how exactly does a16z do it?

01 Power

The core capability of a16z can be summed up in two words—power.

Marc Andreessen himself put it clearly: "We have always believed that what you want from a VC is power, you need the ability to get public attention."

What does this power specifically refer to?

It’s the ability to enable startups to directly define industry agendas, influence public perception, and attract other capital to follow suit. The vehicle for this ability is content.

Marc himself is a top-tier content creator.

From 2011’s "Why Software Is Eating the World," to 2020’s "It's Time to Build," to 2023’s "Why AI Will Save the World" and "The Techno-Optimist Manifesto," almost every article Marc writes sparks industry-wide discussion.

In the past two years, he’s published long-form essays roughly every eight months, each one meticulously crafted as a product.

The influence of these articles comes from two points.

First, Marc’s precise capture of the zeitgeist. "It's Time to Build" struck at the sense of helplessness in the Western world during the early pandemic.

Second, his ability to elevate business topics to the level of nation and civilization. "The Little Tech Agenda" directly equates supporting small tech companies with defending American technological hegemony. Marc packages VC’s business interests as America’s national interests.

a16z has also built a professional and large content team.

According to a16z’s official website, they have dedicated content directors, podcast hosts, and video production teams. Chris Dixon is responsible for crypto content, Connie Chan focuses on the Chinese market and mobile internet, Katherine Boyle leads the "American Dynamism" (national capability/industrial revival) column, and Sriram Krishnan hosts podcasts and participates in Web3 narrative creation.

a16z’s content production is industrialized and systematic. They have their own podcast programs, YouTube channel, and special reports. The team’s task is to turn a16z’s investment themes into communicable narratives and reach policymakers, LPs, entrepreneurs, and other VCs through various channels.

With content capabilities, a16z possesses the core ability to "call the shots + pump the market."

Calling the shots: Through Marc’s articles and systematic output from the content team, they propose a grand narrative (such as Web3 Matters, AI Will Save the World), defining it as the trend of the times.

Pumping the market: As soon as the narrative gains momentum, they immediately invest hundreds of millions or billions of dollars into the track, raising the valuation of star projects by 10x or 100x, solidifying the narrative. Other VCs see a16z entering and follow suit, further pushing up the valuation of the entire track.

This is the core "narrative-investment" capability of a16z.

a16z has generated a cumulative net return of $25 billion for LPs

Content creates influence, investment converts influence into skyrocketing valuations. By manipulating the K-line themselves and becoming the market maker, it’s naturally easier to exit.

So, how did a16z develop its "calling the shots" ability?

02 Calling the Shots

a16z’s grand narrative, aka calling the shots, follows a replicable methodology. I summarize it as the "a16z Five-Step Narrative Method."

Directly hit group emotions, propose a disruptive framework, construct an us-vs-them dichotomy, elevate to the level of civilization, and shout a battle slogan.

Step by step.

Step one: Directly hit group emotions.

Marc’s articles never create hype out of thin air; they’re just half a step ahead of industry sentiment. Not too far ahead, not behind.

"It's Time to Build" (2020) opens with: "Every Western institution was unprepared for the pandemic... This massive failure of institutional effectiveness will haunt us for years to come." In the early days of the pandemic, the entire Western world was experiencing frustration with institutional failure, and Marc precisely captured this emotion, regardless of political affiliation.

"Why AI Will Save the World" (2023) opens: "The era of artificial intelligence is here, and wow, people are terrified." In a light tone, he acknowledges the public’s fear of AI, then seizes on AI skepticism for a full assault.

Step two: Propose a disruptive framework.

After establishing emotional resonance, Marc immediately throws out a disruptive new framework, pulling the debate onto his own turf.

"Why Software Is Eating the World" (2011) doesn’t dwell on "Are tech stocks a bubble?" but directly redefines the issue: this is an economic revolution where "software is becoming the infrastructure of every industry." The valuation debate becomes a question of "Do you understand the future?"

"It's Time to Build" doesn’t dwell on supply chains for masks and ventilators, but says: "The problem is desire. We need to want these things. The problem is inertia, the problem is will." It elevates the supply chain issue to America’s national will and spirit.

Step three: Construct an us-vs-them dichotomy.

Marc simplifies the world into two camps, forcing readers to pick a side.

"The Little Tech Agenda" (2024) is the clearest: "We support those who support small tech. We oppose those who oppose small tech." Minimalist political mobilization language, black and white. We are Little Tech startups; they are Big Tech giants and harmful government policies.

"Why AI Will Save the World" (2023) goes further: we are AI builders, heroes, optimists. They are doomsayers, further subdivided into Baptists (naive but exploited), bootleggers (profiting behind the scenes), even called the "AI risk cult."

Not only does he divide camps, but also delegitimizes opponents through stigmatizing labels.

Step four: Elevate to the level of civilization.

Marc is very good at adding value, elevating specific issues to grand narratives about nation, humanity, and civilization.

"The Little Tech Agenda": "America’s technological hegemony, and the critical role of small tech startups in ensuring that hegemony... a first-class political issue as important as any other." Supporting startups = American tech hegemony = national security. VC’s business interests are directly equated with America’s national interests.

"The Techno-Optimist Manifesto" (2023): "We believe growth is progress, we believe no growth is stagnation, and stagnation ultimately leads to death." Tech optimism = survival, opposition = death. Business choices are elevated to life-and-death decisions.

Step five: Shout the battle slogan.

Marc condenses complex arguments into short, powerful, and easily spread slogans. The title is the slogan, repeated throughout the text, and called for again at the end.

The titles all have distinctive features:

-Strong propositions (Manifesto/Agenda, worldview declarations);

-Calls to action (It's Time to Build, imperative, mobilizing);

-Grand vocabulary (World/Future, emphasizing direction over detail);

-Very few modifiers (modifiers show lack of confidence, the simpler the stronger);

For example, "It's Time to Build"—the title is the slogan, repeated throughout. "Why AI Will Save the World" ends with "We win, they lose."

The ending of "The Little Tech Agenda" is even grander:

"The glory of a Second American Century is within our reach.

Let's grasp it."

(The glory of a second American century is within reach. Let’s grasp it.)

a16z’s website is also very stylish—you can tell at a glance that they truly believe in New Rome

Marc knows his positioning—he’s clear that his articles are for B2B communication, not B2C traffic. The target readers are policymakers, other VCs and LPs, entrepreneurs and engineers, media and opinion leaders.

This determines that his titles must be concise, grand, and powerful, so even those who don’t have time to read the full text can remember and relay the core points.

This is the basic method of a16z’s "calling the shots." It provides emotional groundwork for subsequent market pumping, creates industry FOMO; moral legitimacy—investment is justice; political height—investment is defending civilization; mobilization ability—It's Time to Build.

Now, let’s see how a16z turns these narratives into real financial returns.

03 Pumping the Market

a16z’s "calling the shots" is just the beginning. What truly closes the loop is the investment that immediately follows the narrative—personally entering the market to pump it.

In 2021, a16z published articles to champion Web3, releasing the influential "Why Web3 Matters" and policy agendas. Almost simultaneously, a16z announced the launch of a $2.2 billion crypto fund, Crypto Fund III.

By 2022, this number had become $4.5 billion with Crypto Fund IV.

a16z invested in star projects like OpenSea and Dapper Labs in the Web3 space. OpenSea’s valuation soared from $1.5 billion in July 2021 to $13.3 billion in January 2022—within just half a year.

The logic here is very simple.

a16z tells the world through articles that "Web3 is the future," then puts billions of dollars into the market to show they’re serious. Other VCs see a16z entering and naturally follow. LPs see a16z’s judgment and increase their allocation to Web3. The entire track’s valuation is thus pushed up.

The logic is exactly the same in the AI track. In June 2023, Marc published "Why AI Will Save the World," refuting AI threat theories and promoting AI accelerationism. That same year, a16z announced an investment in Character.AI, leading a $150 million Series A. In 2024, they continued to double down on AI infrastructure and applications.

This is the operating mechanism of the "narrative-investment" dual flywheel.

Narratives create attention and expectations; investment turns expectations into actual valuations. The grander the narrative, the more capital follows, and the more astonishing the valuation increases. As the earliest and largest investor, a16z naturally reaps the greatest gains from the valuation surge.

More crucially, a16z’s approach has gained moral legitimacy.

Marc’s articles package investment behavior as a grand mission of "defending American technological hegemony, advancing human progress, and fighting stagnation and death." It’s hard to accuse a16z of mere hype, because their narrative has been elevated to the level of national interest and the survival of civilization.

When you have enough power, you can create your own K-line. So, the current version of the stock god is undoubtedly Trump.

This is exactly what a16z does. They use content to create expectations, capital to create reality, and grand narratives to legitimize and justify the entire process.

This is the highest level of monetizing influence.

04 Media

Why does a16z want to become a media company?

The motivation behind this goes back to Marc’s deep thinking about power and media.

Before 2016, Marc believed the relationship between the tech industry and mainstream media was "healthy, normal, and productive." He recalls on a podcast that from 1993 to 2016, the media was curious about tech, willing to learn, and tried to understand the changes happening.

But after Trump’s election in 2016, everything changed.

In the spring of 2017, during a media tour, Marc found that "it was like someone flipped a switch—every media outlet became incredibly hostile, a 100% shift, absolute hostility."

Marc believes there are three reasons for this shift.

The media blamed Trump’s election on tech platforms and projected political antagonism onto the entire tech industry.

The traditional media business model was destroyed by social media, leading to economic hardship and resentment towards tech.

The tech industry shifted from being a tool provider to a force disrupting the entire social structure, and thus deserved stricter scrutiny.

The deeper issue is that social media is like an "X-ray machine."

An X-ray machine can see inside the human body, exposing bones and lesions. Social media does the same, allowing everyone to see and spread the truth in real time, repeatedly exposing the internal flaws and inconsistencies of traditional institutions.

Marc cites former CIA analyst Martin Gurri’s theory:

"Social media will completely destroy the authority of all existing institutions. It does this by using the X-ray effect to reveal that basically none of these institutions are trustworthy."

The man is always on podcasts criticizing the media—he really makes me cry

In this context, for VCs to gain power—the ability to influence public perception, define industry agendas, and attract capital—they must build their own media, bypassing the hostile and discredited traditional media.

Marc repeatedly emphasizes on podcasts: "We have always believed that what you want from a VC is power. You need power, which means you need to be able to really meet clients and have them take you seriously; you need the ability to get public attention."

a16z’s media platform is the core tool for achieving this kind of 'power' distribution.

Marc compares this strategy to a "bridge loan for brands": before a startup has its own strong brand, it can borrow a16z’s brand to gain initial market recognition.

So, the motivation for a16z to become a media company is very clear.

In an era when traditional media has lost credibility, only by mastering content production and distribution can one truly hold power. And power is the most scarce resource a VC can offer startups.

Back to the opening question: What is the essence of VC?

The traditional answer: VC is a capital intermediary, connecting LPs and startups, earning returns through investment.

But a16z offers a new answer: VC is a media company that profits through investment.

a16z’s success proves the correctness of this answer. They use newsletters and video podcasts to create grand narratives, use billions of dollars to turn narratives into soaring track valuations, and use their content team and Marc’s personal influence to build a power network.

This dual flywheel of calling the shots and pumping the market has allowed a16z to achieve returns far beyond its peers in SaaS, Web3, AI, and other tracks.

More importantly, a16z’s approach has gained "moral legitimacy." Marc’s articles package investment behavior as a grand mission of "defending American technological hegemony and advancing human progress."

Sun Yuchen hypes in crypto, issuing coins and pumping the market, and is criticized by all. a16z hypes in the primary market—narrative → investment → skyrocketing valuations—and is revered as a benchmark.

What’s the difference?

One lacks a system, relies purely on hype, uses any means, and can only gain attention. The other has a complete methodology, is backed by real money, packages business interests as national interests, and continuously generates influence.

Attention is scarcer than fiat currency. With attention alone, you can only do traffic business, but attention plus trust becomes influence. And influence is the truly monetizable scarce asset.

a16z’s success is a textbook case of monetizing influence.

In this sense, today’s top VCs are essentially media companies. VC is just part of the business model; content and influence are the core assets.

VC is media.

Influence is power.

(References: I really read through all the representative articles of a16z)

1.https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/why-web3-matters/

2.https://a16z.com/ai-will-save-the-world/https://a16z.com/its-time-to-build/

3.https://a16z.com/social-strikes-back/https://a16z.com/the-next-phase-of-social-listen-closely/

4.https://a16z.com/meet-me-in-the-metaverse/

5.https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/nfts-thousand-true-fans/

6.https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2016/07/12/marc-andreessen-now-software-is-programming-the-world/

7.https://a16z.com/introducing-erik-torenberg/

8.https://a16z.com/disposable-software/

9.https://alidocs.dingtalk.com/i/desktop

10.https://a16z.com/the-little-tech-agenda/

11.https://a16z.com/the-future-of-the-news-business-a-monumental-twitter-stream-all-in-one-place/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

12.https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/

13.https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/18/tomorrows-advance-man?utm_source=chatgpt.com

14.https://vccontent.club/p/the-next-great-vc-firm-will-be-built-like-a-media-company-from-day-one

15.https://investing101.substack.com/p/the-state-of-startup-media

16.https://www.newcomer.co/p/andreessen-horowitz-has-returned