Andreessen on Distribution
Great piece by TechCrunch’s Rip Emerson about Thiel’s Stanford class and his recent visitor in class, Marc Andreessen. I particularly loved this passage about why A16Z passes on certain investment opportunities, and he articulates perfectly why just having a great product isn’t the be all, end all:
The number one reason that we pass on entrepreneurs we’d otherwise like to back is focusing on product to the exclusion of everything else. We tend to cultivate and glorify this mentality in the Valley. We’re all enamored with lean startup mode. Engineering and product are key. There is a lot of genius to this, and it has helped create higher quality companies. But the dark side is that it seems to give entrepreneurs excuses not to do the hard stuff of sales and marketing. Many entrepreneurs who build great products simply don’t have a good distribution strategy. Even worse is when they insist that they don’t need one, or call no distribution strategy a “viral marketing strategy.”
