Congrats! Giving meritocratic American entrepreneurs a shot has generated the most prosperity in history. Under the warmth of collectivism in communism, the commissars shoot you.
Making a corporate decision like letting the sexual predator Andrew Tate onto your platform so you can monetize onto his 1M+ followers is WRONG. You are letting him spread his hate and poisonous ideas, letting him infiltrate what we believe was a safe space, a choice to be DIFFERENT from other social media platforms. Allowing him to be here and gathering followers shows a lack of moral ethics and civil responsibility = money comes before everything else
This is what is fucking wrong with the United States of America and why you ended up with another sexual predator and criminal as your president. MONEY FIRST, who cares about the rest right??? FERAL CAPITALISM is what you are and always will be unless corporate leaders like you grow up a spine and make WISE and RESPONSIBILE CHOICES. Be better !!!!
This one stopped me in my tracks and a great read.
For more than 30 years, I’ve helped build products that generated billions of dollars in sales for other companies. Product development, commercialization, building teams, manufacturing, launching, and driving transactions, that’s what I know.
Today, for the first time, I’m raising capital for my own company. I’ve learned something I never fully appreciated from the other side of the table.
I’ve been told my vision is too big.
I’ve also been told I’m not asking for enough money.
Those sound like contradictions, but I understand exactly why I’m doing it this way.
I’m transactional by nature. I don’t believe in raising hundreds of millions simply because everyone else does. I believe in raising what is required to hit specific milestones, prove the model, create value, and then earn the right to raise more if it’s needed.
That’s not thinking small.
That’s being disciplined.
Building a company and raising capital are two very different skill sets. I’m still learning the second one. But I know how to build, I know how to execute, and I know how to create value.
Sometimes the biggest challenge isn’t convincing people your idea is possible.
It’s convincing them that you already know exactly how much fuel you need to get to the next destination.
16 years of A16Z. Keep going. From Intel to Uber to many more technologies to come, VC system is the enabler. The greed to 500X the investment is also good for the society. We use integrated circuits in every aspect of life and we have used Uber in many parts of the world. All thanks to Venture Capitalism.
18% of all US VC dollars in one raise. That's not a fund, that's a category.
What Ben is describing here goes beyond capital allocation. It's a thesis about access architecture, who gets a shot, and who designs the system that decides.
The irony is that most emerging fund managers are trying to compete inside a game they never helped design. They pitch the same way, position the same way, and wonder why LPs keep saying no.
The GPs who will matter in the next decade aren't the ones raising the most, they're the ones who own a category of thought before they own a category of deal flow.
That's exactly what we explore in The Reserve Insights, the institutional logic behind how capital moves, who it trusts, and why.
I admire and genuinely believe in the great work you've done over the years and the exceptional founders you'll invest in the future.
But this America-first approach is delusional and outdated.
It's noise that covers the hard-to-accept reality of a declining empire.
The problem isn't China, this finger-pointing is a cheap tactic.
The problem of America is America.
Probably you forgot to conclude with “thank you for your attention to this matter” - but in capital letters.
Congrats! Giving meritocratic American entrepreneurs a shot has generated the most prosperity in history. Under the warmth of collectivism in communism, the commissars shoot you.
Patriotic capitalists have a duty to win arts and culture: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/winning-americas-counter-cultural-revolution
This article sets a new bar on how an idea that can be expressed in a paragraph can be tortured into a longer piece.
Giving all your LPs a shot yep- that’s what you’re great at! For absolute sick mgmt fees yay!
Making a corporate decision like letting the sexual predator Andrew Tate onto your platform so you can monetize onto his 1M+ followers is WRONG. You are letting him spread his hate and poisonous ideas, letting him infiltrate what we believe was a safe space, a choice to be DIFFERENT from other social media platforms. Allowing him to be here and gathering followers shows a lack of moral ethics and civil responsibility = money comes before everything else
This is what is fucking wrong with the United States of America and why you ended up with another sexual predator and criminal as your president. MONEY FIRST, who cares about the rest right??? FERAL CAPITALISM is what you are and always will be unless corporate leaders like you grow up a spine and make WISE and RESPONSIBILE CHOICES. Be better !!!!
Ben, it’s really gross that you have the rapist Andrew Tate here on Substack. Ew.
A respectful request to take Andrew Tate off of Substack.
Andrew Fucking Tate?
What the hell are u doing letting the scum of the earth on Substack to spread his hate and misogyny?
Andreessen Horowitz won’t live this down anytime soon.
"we raised over 18% of all venture capital dollars allocated in the United States in 2025."
That is just crazy, congrats!
Blimey!
This one stopped me in my tracks and a great read.
For more than 30 years, I’ve helped build products that generated billions of dollars in sales for other companies. Product development, commercialization, building teams, manufacturing, launching, and driving transactions, that’s what I know.
Today, for the first time, I’m raising capital for my own company. I’ve learned something I never fully appreciated from the other side of the table.
I’ve been told my vision is too big.
I’ve also been told I’m not asking for enough money.
Those sound like contradictions, but I understand exactly why I’m doing it this way.
I’m transactional by nature. I don’t believe in raising hundreds of millions simply because everyone else does. I believe in raising what is required to hit specific milestones, prove the model, create value, and then earn the right to raise more if it’s needed.
That’s not thinking small.
That’s being disciplined.
Building a company and raising capital are two very different skill sets. I’m still learning the second one. But I know how to build, I know how to execute, and I know how to create value.
Sometimes the biggest challenge isn’t convincing people your idea is possible.
It’s convincing them that you already know exactly how much fuel you need to get to the next destination.
16 years of A16Z. Keep going. From Intel to Uber to many more technologies to come, VC system is the enabler. The greed to 500X the investment is also good for the society. We use integrated circuits in every aspect of life and we have used Uber in many parts of the world. All thanks to Venture Capitalism.
Well done!!!
-Robert
rkohler@kohler-law.com
https://youtu.be/2yXucjZUBCg
The tone-deafness in this article is wild.
18% of all US VC dollars in one raise. That's not a fund, that's a category.
What Ben is describing here goes beyond capital allocation. It's a thesis about access architecture, who gets a shot, and who designs the system that decides.
The irony is that most emerging fund managers are trying to compete inside a game they never helped design. They pitch the same way, position the same way, and wonder why LPs keep saying no.
The GPs who will matter in the next decade aren't the ones raising the most, they're the ones who own a category of thought before they own a category of deal flow.
That's exactly what we explore in The Reserve Insights, the institutional logic behind how capital moves, who it trusts, and why.
If this post made you think differently about how funds are built, you'll find the next layer at https://thereserveinsights.substack.com