a16z's First Employee on the History of a16z, Venture Capital & Fixing the Government | Scott Kupor
Scott Kupor discusses his 16-year tenure as the first employee and managing partner of Andreessen Horowitz, explaining how the firm adapted Michael Ovitz's talent agency model to venture capital and challenged industry norms around marketing. He then details his transition to running the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, diagnosing the cultural and structural incentive problems in the federal civil service and outlining efforts to modernize federal hiring, performance management, and digital infrastructure.
- Venture capital treated self-promotion as a sign of weakness; Andreessen Horowitz broke that norm by applying enterprise software go-to-market strategies to venture capital. Read →
- In the federal civil service of two million workers, Scott Kupor found that 99.7% of employees received a passing rating of three or above, leaving only 0.3% marked below expectations. Read →
- Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz split their firm down the middle from day one: the founders focused purely on investing, while Scott Kupor took full ownership of firm operations. Read →
- Federal retirement processing relied on 800 workers inside a former limestone mine in Boyers, Pennsylvania, who drove golf carts between filing cabinets to track down records. Read →
- Only 7% of federal civilian employees are under age 30 compared to 23% in the broader economy, while 44% are over age 50. Read →
- Andreessen Horowitz ran a centralized operational engine for 10 years and reached 500 people before the model broke under its own weight. Read →