New Media for Investor Relations: Why It’s an Engine Room, Not a Channel

Andreessen Horowitz – better known as a16z – isn’t just another Sand Hill Road fund. It’s the archetype of modern venture capital: a US$40–50 billion platform that has backed many of the defining technology companies of the last two decades, from Facebook and Airbnb through to Coinbase, Databricks and a long list of AI and crypto unicorns.

Founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen – the engineer behind the Mosaic browser and Netscape – and Ben Horowitz, a former enterprise software CEO who sold Opsware to HP for US$1.6 billion, a16z built its reputation on a simple promise: it would be the most founder-centric, operationally helpful firm in Silicon Valley. Instead of a handful of partners doing board meetings and golf days, they built a platform: recruiting, policy, marketing, technical talent, CEO coaching – all wrapped around the cheque.

That model helped propel a16z into the very top tier of global VC, now managing tens of billions across specialist funds in AI, bio, consumer, fintech, games, crypto, infrastructure and “American Dynamism” (national-interest tech). When a firm with that footprint decides to reinvent its media operation from the ground up, it’s not a branding exercise.

It’s a strategic move in how power, capital and narratives flow through the tech ecosystem – and it has a lot to say to anyone serious about investor relations, investor communications and investor marketing.

Ben Horowitz frames their ambition bluntly: “It’s just as hard to build a small, inconsequential thing as it is to build a giant, world-changing thing. You work the same hours, so you might as well go for something important.”

a16z’s push into “new media” is exactly that: not a side project, but a bet on how stories are told, how memes are made, and how technology companies win permission to build.

What “New Media” Means for Investor Communications in Practice

For investor relations teams, “new media” isn’t about chasing the latest platform – it’s about owning your distribution and compounding trust over time. In theory, “new media” is the catch-all for digital, interactive, many-to-many communication: podcasts, YouTube, X, newsletters, blogs and everything in between.

In practice, for a16z, new media means three things:

• Owning the distribution instead of begging legacy media for coverage.
• Shipping content like a product: testing, iterating and compounding skill through daily reps.
• Blending narrative, community and influence across formats and platforms.

When they launched the firm, their first “product innovation” wasn’t a term sheet. It was viewing venture capital as a product where the founder – not just the LP – is the customer.

So they built a platform around the founder: networks, operational help, CEO coaching. And because they thought like product people, they did something wildly obvious and, at the time, heretical in venture: If you have a product, you market it.

That mindset – treat the firm as a product and media as its distribution – worked for a16z.

For listed companies and growth-stage private businesses, the parallel is straightforward: stop treating investor relations and investor communications as a disclosure chore. Treat them as a product – then build the media engine to support it.

Act Two: When Software Eats the World… And So Does Media

The second phase of the firm was driven by Marc Andreessen’s thesis: “Software is eating the world.” The same structural thinking that let a16z scale funds is what most IR teams are missing in their comms approval process.

For decades, venture capital was basically a game of finding ~15 companies a year that would ever reach US$100m in revenue. A small partnership of elite investors hunting a small pool of winners.

But if software was going to permeate every industry, that number wasn’t 15 anymore. It might be 150–200. Add crypto, AI infrastructure and national-security tech, and you suddenly need:

• Multiple specialist teams.
• Each operating as if it were its own high-conviction firm.
• All sharing common infrastructure, capital and brand.

Crucially, a16z also designed their partnership so they could evolve. They share economics, but not control. There’s a clear decision point at the top, which means the firm can reorganise around new waves – crypto, AI, American Dynamism – without years of partnership politics.

That same structural point applies to investor relations and investor marketing:

• If ten different executives must approve every slide, announcement and LinkedIn post, you cannot compete in a meme-driven environment.
• If decision rights are clear, you can move at the speed required without descending into chaos.

The structure behind the media machine matters just as much as the content.

The Information War: Dog, Tail, Memes and OODA loops

To understand why a16z is building a serious media engine, you have to understand how they see today’s information environment.

1. Social media is the dog; traditional media is the tail

Legacy media used to set the agenda. Now, a huge slice of TV and print is simply reporting whatever was on X / TikTok / Instagram yesterday.

• Social platforms are where the “current thing” is born – the controversy, the dunk, the backlash.
• Traditional outlets package it up later with a theme song and panel show.

If you accept that, you get a very simple rule:

Memes → drive social conversation → drive legacy media coverage.

Control the meme, or at least participate intelligently in its formation, and you influence the wider narrative. As they quip: in Marxist terms, you need to seize the memes of production.

For companies, that’s not just a Twitter joke. It’s a reality for investor communications: plenty of sell-side commentary, retail sentiment and even regulatory attention now starts with social chatter and migrates up the chain.

2. The panic cycle and “internet weather”

Ben describes today’s meme cycle like a weather system:

• A topic goes parabolic and becomes the most important thing in the world for 2–3 days, purely because it’s happening now.
• Then it decays quickly. Everyone moves on to the next storm.
• If you zoom out, you see a constant procession of hurricanes of outrage, one after another.

That permanent storm system produces adrenal fatigue. Everyone is tired, over-stimulated and – in many cases – deeply sceptical.

If you’re trying to do credible investor marketing in that environment, you are not dropping announcements into a calm, rational information pool. You are flying through turbulence and crosswinds.

3. Why long-form wins: candy vs nutrition

The cliché is that nobody has an attention span anymore. The reality is more interesting.

Yes, short-form content is candy – engineered for dopamine and outrage. But at the same time, long-form podcasts (three, four, even six hours) have astonishing completion rates. A lot of people watch or listen right to the end.

The lesson:

• If the rest of someone’s media diet is panic, snippets and half-truths,
• Then substantive long-form content becomes the ultimate differentiator.

That’s why a16z is obsessed with proper conversations, essays and deep dives. It’s not nostalgia. It’s strategy. Depth stands out.

There’s a direct takeaway here for investor relations:

• Your ASX release or 8-K is the legal minimum.
• Your investor presentation, CEO letter, FAQ, webinar and podcast are where you build real understanding and trust.
• Short-form posts and clips support that, but they can’t replace it.

If everyone else is feeding the market sugar, be the one offering actual nutrition.

4. OODA loops: why speed matters

The OODA loop (observe, orient, decide, act loop) is a decision-making model developed by United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd in the early 1970s.

• Whoever cycles that loop faster can “get inside” the opponent’s decision process.
• The slower side is always acting on stale information; morale and credibility suffer.

Social platforms have a much faster OODA loop than legacy media. That’s why newspapers often feel like they’re reporting last week’s conversation.

For a company, your investor communications OODA loop looks like this:

• Observe: what’s actually being said – in the market, online, in your register?
• Orient: what does this mean for us – risk, opportunity, misunderstanding?
• Decide: what, if anything, do we say or do?
• Act: announcement, blog, DM, call, webinar, social post – whatever’s appropriate.

If your approval structure means that loop takes weeks, you’re not in the game.

Inside the a16z New Media Engine

From the essay and the Mark & Ben conversation, you can roughly sketch their media stack.

1. Owned, habit-forming channels

They’ve built:

• A multi-day-per-week podcast and newsletter.
• A growing ecosystem of shows and formats around different partners and themes.
• A home base on their own site and channels, with YouTube and social as amplifiers.

The aim is simple: become a regular habit for founders, operators, regulators, LPs – and yes, journalists.

For companies, think of this as the long-form foundation of investor marketing:

• A recurring investor update or CEO letter that people actually read.
• A webinar, podcast or video series explaining the strategy in plain language.
• A consistent presence on LinkedIn and other relevant platforms.

2. A serious in-house studio

a16z has effectively built a creative agency inside the firm:

• Video, audio, design, event production, social.
• Tuned for internet culture and rapid iteration, not corporate brochureware.

They can move quickly without sending every idea out to tender. For investor relations, that’s the difference between:

• Posting an investor Q&A video the same week a big question emerges, versus
• Discussing the concept of video at the next quarterly board meeting.

You don’t need a Hollywood-grade studio. But you probably do need a minimum internal capability to script, shoot and ship.

3. “Timeline takeover” and productised launches

For big moments, they run what they call “timeline takeover”:

• One core narrative and 2–3 sharp talking points.
• A flagship asset: essay, conversation, deck, video.
• A suite of derivatives: short clips, threads, graphics, emails.
• Coordinated distribution to their own audience, plus carefully selected external outlets and influencers.

In other words, they’ve productised launches.

Investor-facing version:

• Capital raises, M&A, major project milestones, strategy shifts – all deserve more than a single ASX announcement or press release.
• A standardised launch playbook across investor communications ensures you’re consistent, fast and clear every time.
• It also makes life easier for brokers, analysts and journalists: everything they need is ready, coherent and accessible.

4. A talent bench and a culture of experimentation

Finally, they’re building a bench of people who live and breathe this stuff:

• Specialist teams for crypto, AI, bio, etc.
• Training programs and internal “classes” on boards, investing frameworks, culture.
• A deeply ingrained experimental mindset: if something doesn’t work, they “bury it behind the shed” and move on.

The analogy in investor relations is obvious:

• You need at least one person or team who see investor messaging, media and digital channels as their craft – not an admin burden.
• They need permission to test formats, retire duds and double down on what actually moves the needle.
• And that work needs to be integrated with strategy, not bolted on at the end.

What This Means For Your Investor Relations and Investor Marketing

You don’t need a16z’s size or budget to apply the lessons. But you probably do need to update how you think about investor-facing communication.

1. Treat IR as a product, not paperwork

Ask:

• If I were an institutional PM or a serious private investor, would I consider my current investor relations “a good product”?
• Do I know where to go for the truth about the company?
• Am I getting real insight and access, or just compliance-grade updates?

Your job is not only to disclose, but to explain:

• Strategy and capital allocation.
• Risks and trade-offs.
• Progress against milestones.
• How you’ll create value and who benefits when you do.

That’s what sophisticated investor marketing really is – not glossy brochures, but clear, consistent, adult communication.

2. Build at least one “nutritious” long-form format

Choose a format where you can go deep:

• Quarterly CEO letters.
• Regular investor webinars with proper Q&A.
• A recurring podcast or video briefing.
• Detailed blogs unpacking complex projects or markets.

Then commit to a schedule and hold yourself to a standard: if you stopped tomorrow, would anyone notice?

3. Productise your investor communications around key events

Don’t reinvent your process every time news hits. Build a simple, reusable playbook for:

• Results and quarterlies.
• Capital raises and strategic investments.
• Major projects, acquisitions, divestments.
• Governance or leadership changes.

For each, define:

• Core narrative and key messages.
• Required ASX / regulatory disclosure.
• Supporting investor communications: slides, FAQs, letters, diagrams, videos.
• Distribution: ASX, website, email, LinkedIn, broker notes, direct outreach.

The result is calmer internal process, better external understanding – and fewer “what on earth are they doing?” moments on the register.

4. Fix your decision rights and culture

If your comms grind to a halt because everyone has an equal veto, you have a structural problem, not a drafting problem.

Clarify:

• Who owns investor relations day-to-day.
• Who has final call in a time-sensitive situation.
• What your non-negotiable cultural rules are (e.g. “we don’t criticise stakeholders in public”; “we front-foot bad news”; “we answer tough questions, even when it stings”).

Then behave accordingly – online, on calls and in rooms.

Final Take

If you’re ready to turn investor relations into a real growth engine – not just a compliance channel – get in touch with Investability. We help listed and growth companies build modern, founder-grade investor communications that compound trust over time.

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