Andreessen Horowitz has two partners sitting on the boards of companies that nowcompete with each other: Ben Horowitz at Databricks and Martin Casado atFivetran. Nothing too scandalous on the surface, exceptthe Department ofJusticehasreportedlybeen investigating the arrangementforalmostayear, dustingoff a 112-year-old antitrustlawthat’srarely used against VCs.
Board conflictsaren’texactly new, and these companiesweren’tnecessarily 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?
On this episode of TechCrunch’sEquitypodcast, Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into the a16z probe, what it could mean for VCs, and more of the week’s headlines.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about:
- Why Stripepaid$7.5 billionfor AImodel routerOpenRouter, and why the “singularity”isn’tthe real reason
- What happens to the AI companies caught in the middle as OpenAI,Anthropic, andNvidiapull further ahead
- Why Rivian spinout Alsojust raised $150 millionto make a bigger bet on autonomous vehicles
- Uber’snewest delivery partnership with drone company Zipline, and whatitmeans for the other autonomous startups betting their futures on Uber
- Whetherwe’vereached peak valuation for AI dictation apps afterWispr’s $280 million raise at a$2 billionvaluation
Subscribe to Equity onYouTube,Apple Podcasts,Overcast,Spotifyand all the casts. Youalso canfollow Equity onXandThreads, at @EquityPod.
Theresa Loconsolo is an audio producer at TechCrunch focusing on Equity, the network’s flagship podcast. Before joining TechCrunch in 2022, she was one of 2 producers at a four-station conglomerate where she wrote, recorded, voiced and edited content, and engineered live performances and interviews from guests like lovelytheband. Theresa is based in New Jersey and holds a bachelors degree in Communication from Monmouth University.
You can contact or verify outreach from Theresa by emailing [email protected].
Anthony Ha is TechCrunch’s weekend editor. Previously, he worked as a tech reporter at Adweek, a senior editor at VentureBeat, a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City.
You can contact or verify outreach from Anthony by emailing [email protected].
Kirsten Korosec is a reporter and editor who has covered the future of transportation from EVs and autonomous vehicles to urban air mobility and in-car tech for more than a decade. She is currently the transportation editor at TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is also co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She previously wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.
You can contact or verify outreach from Kirsten by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at kkorosec.07 on Signal.
Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.
You can contact or verify outreach from Sean by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at okane.01 on Signal.