James Gwertzman,General Partner, a16z, Focused on Gaming

I've made the decision to step back from my role as GP at a16z, in order to go back to being a full-time builder. I'm proud of helping launch Games Fund One, and I've loved learning the VC ropes, but I miss being an entrepreneur.

As part of this transition, I've been reflecting on the lessons I learned over the past year:

1/ Ben taught me that entrepreneurship is about speed; investing is about accuracy. When running a company, if you get something wrong, you simply adjust and iterate. When investing, pick the wrong company, and you may be locked out of an entire market due to conflict risk.

2/ Venture capital is ultimately a quest for truth in the face of imperfect information. Which companies will ultimately succeed? There's no formula, and every GP has their own framework. Next time you're pitching a VC, ask them to describe their framework.

3/ One of the best parts of this job was getting a first look at new trends affecting an entire industry. Last year I met with hundreds of founders at the cutting edge of gaming, and got to pattern match across the whole space. That's incredibly fun.

4/ Another great part of the job was spending time giving back by coaching and advising other game entrepreneurs. Whether during a pitch, or after joining a board, this was incredibly rewarding, and it's something I'm going to carve out more time for going forward.

5/ When investing at an early stage, team matters more than idea. Like Ed Catmull says, give a good idea to a mediocre team, they will screw it up; give a mediocre idea to a great team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something that works.

6/ Great product people are scarce. In my time here, I saw a number of great engineering-led companies, with amazing talent, but with no one in a product leadership role setting priorities and making tough decisions Why are product people so scarce in gaming?

7/ I haven't decided yet what to focus on next, and I'm looking forward to taking some time before I jump back in. As a VC I saw many gaps in the market where I would have liked to invest, and am now considering building.

8/ Some areas I'm especially excited about: DevOps/asset management for games; GenAI for games; engines built ground-up for multiplayer and LiveOps. I'm also personally excited about physical-meets-virtual experiences, but that's a tough business model to scale.

9/ My experience working with The Moonlight Collective as an interactive light artist (https://lnkd.in/gWf-ar28) was particularly rewarding. I admire studios like Studio Drift and teamLAB, and have thought about doing something along those lines.

My last day will be Jan 31. Particular thanks to Marc, Ben, Andrew, Jon, and the whole Games Fund One team. Incredibly excited to watch this team remake the industry.