Latest Interviews
Showing 16–17 of 17 interview transcripts.
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a16z Podcast | You Just Thought You Were Building a Software Company. It's a Community.
NationBuilder founder Jim Gilliam redefines community organizing as the essential mechanism for bypassing traditional permission structures to execute projects ranging from political campaigns to global marketplaces like Airbnb. The platform democratizes these capabilities for politics and non-profits while evolving its internal model to prioritize storytelling over traditional sales, training an organizing team to connect with users through shared narratives. This approach leverages the shift from physical proximity to digital connectivity, enabling individuals to mobilize weak ties and launch initiatives without relying on established capital or corporate approval.
- a16z19 min
a16z Podcast | The Future Of Television
Benedict Evans, Zal Bilimoria, Michael Copeland, Benedict Davins, Zal Bellamoria
Benedict Davins outlines the structural fragility of the US television market, noting that disrupting the entrenched cable ecosystem requires massive capital investment comparable to building a national cellular network. In response, industry players like Netflix and tech giants such as Apple and Google are diverging strategies, with some pivoting to original production while others leverage content as a loss leader to drive hardware and ecosystem sales. As regulators weigh critical cases like Aereo and devices adopt open protocols, the shift toward on-demand viewing threatens to dismantle traditional linear scheduling economics and rebuff the "long tail" of content reliant on incidental viewership.