“In many ways Wennmachers is an architect of Andreessen Horowitz, the prestigious investment firm that has backed hundreds of startups, including Facebook, Airbnb, and Twitter. Or, at least, she’s the architect of what the firm appears to be—and her presence has left an indelible imprint on the hundreds of businesses that have come into contact with the firm. Because of her, Silicon Valley looks very different than it did even a decade ago.”
Why this matters?
- This excellent profile of Margit Wennmachers demonstrates just how important brand, positioning and story-telling are for a VC firm. Most interestingly it shows how Andreessen Horowitz are able not only to leverage this for perception of their own brand but are also able to shape the whole industry into their vision of the future.
- This is taking VC content-marketing to whole new levels. While most VCs concentrate on producing quality content (it’s worth noting that a16z are one of the best at this too) this is about owning and directly influencing the wider discussion.
- Europe are way behind the Valley in this respect, with only the last couple of years seeing the top firms even produce consistent levels of content. It will be interesting to see how long it takes the big players in Europe to take even more control of their and “the” story. (N.B: The only strong example that comes to mind is Bryce Keane at Atomico, see point 4 below)
- With a potential tech backlash around the corner, the industry is going to need more Margits. I’d not only expect this type of profile to be more and more commonplace at VC firms over the next few years, but also for them to be pretty central to their operations.
