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I would imagine that 44% return went a long way towards the vaunted status A16z had. In that, while perhaps not expecting to stay at such a high level of return, it's news because it wouldn't have been expected that such a drop (to the point where investing in common stock market index funds would have yielded a similar or better return) would have happened.

And isn't 16% ans 12% still excellent? It seems better than almost anything else really...

The S&P 500 has returned an average of 12.5% annually since 2011.

This isn't an index fund we're talking about.

Certainly not excellent - Obviously there is a lot that goes into it - but 20% would be closer to the average expected return on a VC fund like A16z based on the style of investing, not achieving that - or higher - would be a disappointing run.

The point, as mentioned by the article, is to consistently beat out other similar investments at that scale (ie, index funds, private equity, etc). 44% isn't the competition, no. At a minimum 15-16% in the long run.

But otherwise at a more local level high risk capital expects high rewards.