Today, a16z Crypto is becoming a16z Frontier. Since joining a16z in 2013, @cdixon has focused on technologies that look futuristic well before they reach the mainstream. Those themes led to investments in Oculus, Skydio, Zipline, Coinbase, Solana, and Uniswap. Frontier expands that mandate beyond crypto to back "outer planet" founders who are building new technologies and creating markets that may take years to develop. Chris joins @pmarca, @bhorowitz, and @eriktorenberg to discuss why crypto has become part of the broader tech landscape, why Frontier fills a hole in the firm's architecture, and why they'd rather be too early than too late. They also get into why the gap between AI-native startups and incumbents is the widest Marc has ever seen, how AI could pull forward 20 years of frontier technology, why stablecoins may become the way AI agents pay each other, how AI is breaking the internet's business model, and why today's 18-year-olds are about to become superhumans. 0:50 Introducing a16z Frontier 2:49 Smartphone parts to drones and VR 4:47 Backing the "outer planets" 7:11 Good ideas that look like bad ideas 10:43 The JP Morgan photo in Marc's office 15:13 Good tech ideas eventually work 16:53 AI may pull tech 20 years forward 18:18 The widest AI gap Marc's ever seen 22:06 Workers adopt AI before companies do 26:32 Old use cases vs. AI-native ones 30:08 Beyond "product manager brain" 34:45 AI can reverse engineer any hardware 38:23 The case for open source AI 46:36 How AI breaks the internet's model 49:11 VR, homebrew hacking, multiplayer AI 54:00 If you're 18, study "modern alchemy" YouTube: youtu.be/-9XQMHhpypc Not an offer or solicitation. None of the information herein should be taken as investment advice; Some of the companies mentioned are portfolio companies of a16z. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more information. A list of investments made by a16z is available at a16z.com/portfolio.

Marc Andreessen on the generational divide in how people receive new technology, and why it's "prime time" for 18-year-olds to grab AI and run with it: "Douglas Adams, the guy who wrote Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, had the defining description of how technology is received on a generational level... Any new technology is received three different ways by three different age cohorts." "If you're below the age of 15, it's just the natural way the world works. I've told in other settings the story of introducing my kid to ChatGPT at age seven, 'This is such a big deal because the computer answers questions.' And he's like, 'Duh.'... It's just normal." "If you're between the ages of 15 to 35, it's new, exciting, a hot field, and you might be able to make a career out of it, in which case you want to learn all the new things." "If you're above the age of 35, it's unholy and evil, and will surely overturn all existing structures and destroy society." "I think 18-year-olds right now, I mean, it's prime time to grab these new capabilities and run with them. It's gonna be creation of entirely new fields of entrepreneurship and creativity and art and everything." "The schools are banning AI or having all these controversies with it. But of course, if you're a kid, that just makes it cooler... AI is your like secret superpower that you have to like deviously figure out how to take advantage of." @pmarca @bhorowitz