Who Is Michael Ovitz?

by Michael Ovitz

While other venture firms seek out executive talent for their clients, Andreessen Horowitz goes further. It develops ties with the Valley’s best software engineers, designers, and product managers, helping them with introductions and career counseling. At times it connects these engineers and managers to one of its portfolio companies, but often there’s no direct payoff. It does the same for top Valley executives, much as CAA negotiated employment contracts for studio executives. Andreessen Horowitz aims to forge long-term relationships that might eventually prove helpful at a future start-up, or as part of future deal flow. And Marc and Ben’s thesis has worked brilliantly. They have rapidly established themselves as one of the nation’s top five venture firms, with prescient investments in Facebook, Skype, Stripe, Airbnb, GitHub, Instacart, Lyft, and Pinterest, among many others. As Marc told the New York Times, “We’ll wire up talent first with the goal of knowing and building relationships with all the best people. It’s more like a Hollywood talent agency.”