# Andrew Chen **Andrew Chen** is a general partner at [[Andreessen Horowitz]] who invests in consumer technology, games and, more recently, early-stage AI companies. Before joining the firm in 2018 he led rider growth at [[Uber]]. He is best known in the startup world as a writer on growth and network effects and as the author of *The Cold Start Problem* (Harper Business, 2021). He's on the map for two deals. Chen led Andreessen Horowitz's investments in both [[Clubhouse]] and [[Substack]], and took board seats at both. Those were two of the main platforms of the early 2020s for speaking to audiences without going through the established press. One was built for live talk among the firm's own circle, the other for writers leaving newsrooms. Chen wasn't a prominent public combatant in the tech-versus-press fights. He wrote the checks that built two of the venues where they played out. ## Career Chen built a following in the late 2000s and 2010s with essays on user growth and startup metrics, including an influential 2012 post arguing that the "growth hacker" was the new VP of marketing. He ran a startup that didn't work out; its team landed at Uber, where he led the rider growth teams from 2015 to 2018, during the company's pre-IPO expansion. He joined Andreessen Horowitz as a general partner in 2018, investing in social, marketplace and entertainment startups. ## The media bets - **Substack.** Chen led Substack's $15.3 million Series A in 2019 and its $65 million Series B in March 2021, which valued the newsletter company at about $650 million. The 2021 round landed as well-known writers were leaving newspapers and magazines for the platform. The Columbia Journalism Review noted at the time that Andreessen Horowitz had talked about building its own media and had backed Clubhouse, which the firm's founders used as an alternative to traditional press. - **Clubhouse.** Chen led all three of Clubhouse's major rounds: the May 2020 Series A at about $100 million, the January 2021 Series B at about $1 billion and the April 2021 Series C at about $4 billion. Forbes reported that the firm won the first deal in a contest with Benchmark, partly on Chen's longtime friendship with founder [[Paul Davison]]. Clubhouse became the room where [[Marc Andreessen]], [[Balaji Srinivasan]] and others in the firm's circle talked past the press. See [[Clubhouse]] and [[Social Audio]]. ## Games and Speedrun Chen helped launch Andreessen Horowitz's games practice, which raised a $600 million first fund in 2022. In 2023 he started **Speedrun**, an accelerator that puts several hundred thousand dollars into very early startups; by 2024 it was writing $750,000 checks per company. Speedrun began with games and has broadened into AI-era consumer and software startups. ## Why it's on the map - **The financier of the bypass.** The "go direct" argument, that founders and public figures should skip the press, needed platforms. Chen's two board seats were at two of the most important ones of its early years. See [[Andreessen Horowitz]] and [[Marc Andreessen]]. - **Low-profile power.** Unlike [[Marc Andreessen]] or [[Balaji Srinivasan]], Chen isn't known as a political figure. His influence on the media landscape comes from capital allocation, not commentary. - **An irony in the record.** [[Taylor Lorenz]], a reporter the a16z circle repeatedly clashed with on Clubhouse, later left legacy media for Substack, the other platform Chen financed. ## Connections - [[Andreessen Horowitz]] · [[Marc Andreessen]] · [[Ben Horowitz]] - [[Clubhouse]] · [[Paul Davison]] · [[Rohan Seth]] · [[Social Audio]] - [[Substack]] · [[Taylor Lorenz]] · [[Uber]]