Andreessen Horowitz has two partners sitting on the boards of companies that now compete with each other: Ben Horowitz at Databricks and Martin Casado at Fivetran. Nothing too scandalous on the surface, except \u2060the Department of Justice has reportedly been investigating the arrangement \u2060for almost a year, dusting off a 112-year-old antitrust law that’s rarely used against VCs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Board conflicts aren’t exactly new, and these companies weren’t necessarily direct competitors when a16z first invested in them. But as portfolio companies expand into each other’s markets, the DOJ’s scrutiny raises a much bigger question for venture firms: How do you manage board seats when the boundaries between your portfolio companies keep moving?\u00a0
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\nOn this episode of TechCrunch’s\u2060 Equity\u2060 podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into the a16z probe, what it could mean for VCs, and more of the week\u2019s headlines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Subscribe to Equity on \u2060YouTube\u2060,\u2060 Apple Podcasts\u2060,\u2060 Overcast\u2060,\u2060 Spotify\u2060 and all the casts. You also can follow Equity on\u2060 X\u2060 and\u2060 Threads\u2060, at @EquityPod.\u00a0
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\nChapters:\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\n00:00 Intro\u00a0
\n1:02 TechCrunch Disrupt and the Startup Battlefield 200\u00a0
\n3:17 The DOJ is investigating a16z over board seats\u00a0
\n14:47 Why Stripe just paid $7.5B for \u201cthe Stripe for AI\u201d\u00a0
\n18:18 The mid-tier AI scramble: gateways, pivots, and acquihires\u00a0
\n23:17 Anthropic’s revenue surges while OpenAI’s losses deepen\u00a0
\n27:08 Also raises $150M and drops the \u201cmicro mobility\u201d label\u00a0
\n32:30 Uber teams up with Zipline for drone delivery\u00a0
\n37:19 Wispr hits a $2B valuation\u00a0
\n38:26 Outro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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