I'm joining a16z

Packy McCormick announces he is leaving Shopify after five years to join a16z as Editor at Large, responsible for the firm's written output. He argues that the central purpose of a VC firm's content, especially its writing, is to give founders power by granting them legitimacy. He contends that great writing transfers something into readers that talking does not, and that writers reach the widest audiences by writing for a narrow primary audience who then retell the ideas to others. He cites Byrne Hobart's 30-year mortgage piece as an example of a post that gave readers credibility to discuss the topic.