Derek Dolin (@DerekDolin) profile picture

Connecting the world's greatest leaders across music, entertainment, and culture to the best new technology companies @a16z x @a16zclf

Los Angeles, CA
Joined June 2009
Derek Dolin retweeted
Very excited to announce the first ever @warnermusic Hackathon. Please DM me if you would like to come help change the future of music….. A very special thank you to @cursor_ai and @spacexai for the incredible help and support of this event. $10k in @cursor_ai credits to the winner!
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Derek Dolin retweeted
a16z is officially in Japan, led by Hitoshi Yoshida as Head of Japan, with the opening of our Japan office. It was an honor welcoming Governor Koike at the opening earlier today. Japan combines world-class industrial capabilities with growing innovation in AI, cybersecurity, robotics, and defense. By bringing our portfolio companies and the Japanese ecosystem together, we aim to accelerate Japan’s AI-native economy and strengthen the ties between Silicon Valley and Japan. As the former President of Microsoft Japan and Hewlett-Packard Japan, Hitoshi brings decades of technology leadership and deep relationships across business, industry, and government. We’re thrilled to have him lead our efforts in Japan and look forward to doing great work in partnership with the Japanese technology community. 日本代表として吉田仁志を迎え、日本オフィスを開設できたことを大変心強く光栄に思います。日本は、世界有数の産業基盤と、AI・サイバーセキュリティ・ロボティクス・防衛などの分野における目覚ましいイノベーションを兼ね備えています。 我々はこれまでになかった機会を、日本の若い世代に提供していくことを目指します。日本のテクノロジーコミュニティの皆様と共に、日本の市場やエコシステムの発展に貢献していけることを楽しみにしています。
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Excited to introduce @Cosign: the curated professional network for the startup community: cosign.co Our goal is to create the following: - A comprehensive startup directory of investors, companies, and operators, including what they worked on and who they worked on it with. - Cosign graph: Who shaped your career? Who were you actually in the trenches with? Who would work with you again? Who thinks you’re someone to watch? - Durable reputation: Great endorsements happen every day on X and disappear into the feed. Cosign attaches those signals permanently to people and companies. - Discovery: Who are the best fintech angels? Which AI companies should I watch? Who are the best designers? - Intent network: Privately signal “I’d invest in them,” “I’d hire them,” “I’d work with them,” or eventually even “I’d acquire this company.” Match people when interest exists on both sides. Imagine if Wikipedia, LinkedIn, and OG AngelList had a baby. Though Cosign is a community, not a business. In order to join, you need to be cosigned. Or you can apply directly. David Booth and I started this idea 7 years ago but didn’t have the firepower to make it work. Now we do. No one has really touched LinkedIn in 20 years. Excited to take a swing. cosign.co
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Derek Dolin retweeted
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We're hiring again at New Media. Our team does storytelling for our firm and our companies (and in part, our industry) including working closely with SpaceX, OpenAI, and many others. We run many of the firm's networks and we also have a couple incubations in the works. We're focused on helping compound the competitive advantages of the firm. This quarter we’ve hired some great people: @gaby_goldberg @jessicarwolf @karinabao @thedanigrant @mikemcg0, @brookemrtn, @LukeDeNatale @rorhug, and a couple others to be announced. We’ve also spun out some great people who are working closely with us but from incubations or portfolio companies — the amazing @liangsays @netcapgirl @gbrl_dick @humford @davideoks @schisofrenia @ChrisJBakke @knowerofmarkets paving the way for more leadership opportunities on the team. For people who want to learn about operating and investing, for people who want to feel like they get the depth and camaraderie of a startup with the breadth and intellectual curiosity of a VC firm, it’s the perfect place. People here love the work, the people, and the growth–and we’re committed to this being a springboard for their career, as shown from the folks above. If you’re interested and a good fit, we’d love to meet - apply below. We’re also hosting a dinner Thursday. The best way to apply is via proof of work or a strong reference. Apply: jobs.ashbyhq.com/a16z-new-me… Roles below: Chief of Staff: help me run all our initiatives at the intersection of investing, networks, and media. Senior role with a big impact. Marketing and Comms Leadership: own the narrative for the a16z portfolio and firm. We’re hiring a CMO and a Chief Comms Officer. Podcasts: run, produce, scale our podcasts end-to-end. We’re also looking for a podcast host for new podcasts and podcast researchers. Content: define the agenda for tech. Build the most well-read and high-taste tech publication in the industry as an editor, writer, or specialist in growth/operations. Social: build the biggest go-direct channels for the firm and top-tier CEOs, drive content strategy, design and audience growth. Portfolio services: forward deploy into our most important portfolio companies and help them solve zero-to-one marketing and media strategy problems. Research: help us curate the most important conversations in tech. Networks: Help build digital and IRL community across our extended networks of founders, investors, creators, and the tech ecosystem more broadly. Help run our VIP group chat operation. Help us source and identify amazing future founders at top companies today. College: help us build a network of talented young people on campuses across the country (and the world). Also, watch this space. Talent: Help our portfolio companies build their employer brands and build candidate-sourcing machines. Product and AI Engineer: Build the best products in house to help scale our work and networks Events: own flagship gatherings and summits that create moments people talk about. Video: we want to take flyers on creative directors, content generalists, and aspiring filmmakers in tech. More broadly, we’re interested in hiring anyone doing something exceptional at the intersection of investing and networks or content or product.
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KALSHI
🤝 Paid partnership
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A few moments from our Cultural Capital Table dinners during Boston and New York Tech Week. Grateful to have gathered founders, operators, investors, academics, and cultural leaders for an evening of conversation, connection, and community. Thank you to everyone who joined us!
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Derek Dolin retweeted
Martin Scorsese is an advisor to Black Forest Labs. He's spent six decades shaping how the world sees stories. Now he's helping us shape visual intelligence with human taste and craft at the center. We sat down with him for a working storyboarding session using FLUX.
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Derek Dolin retweeted
The Senate Banking Committee released the latest draft of the CLARITY Act last night. The draft has significantly improved since January and reflects years of bipartisan negotiations. It’s time to get this passed. This bill safeguards consumers, includes important developer protections, and gives crypto entrepreneurs the regulatory clarity they need to build here in the U.S. We’re thankful for the hard work of the Senate Banking Committee and their staff. We urge Senators on both sides to move quickly to advance it out of Committee, to the Senate floor, and ultimately be signed into law by the President.
Chairman @SenatorTimScott, @SenLummis, and @SenThomTillis released market structure text ahead of this week’s markup.   The Senate’s CLARITY Act delivers clear rules of the road, protects investors, combats illicit finance, and keeps innovation in America. banking.senate.gov/newsroom/…
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Derek Dolin retweeted
The power of prediction markets extends beyond trading The markets produce information - a live probability that's more disciplined than a poll or pundit CNN, CNBC, and now Fox recognize the importance of Kalshi: a feed of what people truly believe when incentives are aligned
Fox News x Kalshi The largest news network in America integrates Kalshi. Prediction markets add accountability by rewarding accuracy. That’s why the three leading networks have chosen Kalshi. No spin. No partisan lens. Just incentives to be right.
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The "AI job loss" narratives are all fake. AI = massive ramp in productivity = massive ramp in demand = massive jobs boom. Watch.
1. Employer recovery from post-COVID hiring correction 2. Employer recovery from post-COVID interest rate spike 3. Elasticity = demand boom QED
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Derek Dolin retweeted
Stanford @frontiersystems, Week 1 (Full Lecture) AI Scaling, Bottlenecks, and Why Compute Isn't a Commodity Yet 00:00 Compute Coachella 00:29 Simple Life Heuristic 01:08 Uncertainty Creates Opportunity 01:42 Four Bottlenecks Framework 01:51 Empirical Proof Matters 02:05 Cloud Costs Are Shifting 02:15 Verifiable vs Fuzzy Progress 02:48 Scaling Predictability Explained 03:43 CapEx Explosion in Big Tech 04:06 Chips Aren’t Commodities 04:45 Compute Scarcity Conclusion
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It’s time to tell the story of the future.
Stories shape our future. Story tellers manifest our destiny. Someone, somewhere, is writing an epic screenplay that is more Star Trek, than Terminator. A vision of a compelling and optimistic tomorrow that will shape humanity’s next few decades. The cell phone, the internet, humanoid robots, self-driving cars, voice assistants, and Starships were all imagined in science fiction before they were built by engineers. Stories are blueprints. Question: What if we asked storytellers around the world to envision an epic and compelling future for humanity, and then funded them to produce that film? What if we could flood the world with positive visions of the future, rather than dystopian predictions? Announcing the Future Vision XPRIZE 🧵
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Derek Dolin retweeted
Alex Karp: "America has reestablished deterrence." "That actually just happened. It's happened in the last year." "That is a phenomenal asset that America now has that it did not have. And there are lots of reasons for it, but one—maybe not the most important—is a concatenation of the most unusual (in some cases otherwise maybe not fully functional) talent built around building something that was an absolutely scandalous, unpopular dream rejected by many people, called Maven." "If we are going to outperform the rest of the world, our single advantage is to augment neurodivergent, highly individual people to be their absolutely unique best—and protect their First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights so that they don't get screwed." @PalantirTech @KTMBoyle
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Derek Dolin retweeted
American Dynamism 🇺🇸
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Derek Dolin retweeted
I had an incredible conversation with the legendary @MagicJohnson on the @a16z podcast discussing his best deals, investing where no one else is looking, and building a sports empire. Grateful for the 10+ years of building together and learning from the 🐐 on and off the court. Give it a listen 🎙️
Earvin "Magic" Johnson and a16z's Chris Lyons sat down for a conversation on Magic's 30 year journey from athlete to billionaire businessman, including what Magic learned from Michael Ovitz, Magic's investments in Silicon Valley and sports, why athletes should take equity over endorsements, and more. 00:00 Introduction 05:09 How Michael Ovitz became Magic's first business mentor 07:42 The art of deal making and building a Rolodex 17:30 Magic's first Silicon Valley investment: Skydio 27:00 Building a team: Get people smarter than you 29:48 The one that got away: Nike stock in 1979 37:36 Why AI is changing everything 44:36 Sports ownership: Dodgers, Commanders, Sparks, and LAFC @MagicJohnson @ChrisLyons
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Derek Dolin retweeted
Congratulations to @SpaceX, @xai and @X. We at @a16z are honored to be part of your journeys. Thrilled to see you take this step into the future together. Ad astra! @sarahdingwang
SpaceX has acquired xAI, forming one of the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engines on (and off) Earth → spacex.com/updates#xai-joins…
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Derek Dolin retweeted
The most successful people I know all have an almost irrational belief that everything will work out And I just recently learned the word for it: Pronoia. It means the opposite of paranoia. The belief that the world is secretly conspiring in your favor. The funny thing about Pronoia is that it's self-fulfilling. When you believe things will work out, you try harder. You persist longer, and you see opportunities where others see dead ends. What's that quote again? "Pessimists sound smart. Optimists make money." – Nat Friedman We all need a little more pronoia in our lives.
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