The Founder's Dilemma: To Compete or Unbundle | Andreessen Horowitz

Every few years a great unbundling occurs

In 2010, Andrew Parker wrote a defining post about the "unbundling" of Craigslist where he outlined the opportunity to carve out niche products from broad horizontal networks like Craigslist. The broad networks are everything to everyone, the niche ones are something special to a certain group. If you add u... See more

My partner Jana Messerschmidt asked her panel how business models of vertical networks will different from utility networks like Facebook*. The panelists argued that the benefit of a vertical network is greater trust, and that trust creates the possibility of direct monetization. Moving away from ads may also create more aligned business models for... See more

A decade ago, I was only a couple of years into my venture career. I believed that growth and progress were synonymous – in an industry where scale was the ultimate target, platforms that achieved it were glorified. A decade later, I have learned that success is more nuanced, and we have to take accountability for the outcomes we encourage. New dom... See more