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Comment by reasonableklout | Hacker News Reader

Wow, TIL a16z hired the NYC subway guy as a partner purely as a political stunt. This on top of the $115M in the midterms, them no longer legally being a VC firm, and recent discussion on dark patterns in their portfolio [1]. I'm inclined to agree with the thesis of the article especially with regards to this firm. Looking forward to the other articles in the series.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49416055

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a16z has always struck me as the shadiest vc - i associate them with NFT's, crypto and god knows what. They personify the amorality of chasing money over anything (Maybe indicative of SV culture these days in general).

I don't think anything that could even be mentioned as VC despises its own clients as much as a16z. Trying to sell investors on NFTs in 2026 should be criminal.

They are. The fact that they LPs escape any peril for financing nonsense morals and returns is something of a marketing miracle.

As someone reading much of what Molly White publishes, there is no short supply of people in crypto that give of the same aura and are f̵i̵n̵a̵n̵c̵i̵n̵g̵ donating to someone that will push their crypto regulation agenda https://hachyderm.io/@molly0xfff/117191164732599820

a16z is one of the firms whose influencers I mute on sight on twitter. Far too many grifters shilling dubious products.

My absolute regret is that I used to look up to Marc and Ben, in the sense that I felt we were on the same team, trying to build cool new technology. That was a long time ago. It appears now that they've completely lost their way, or they never had a moral compass in the first place. Having met some of the people in those circles, I've never come away with the thought that they were nefarious cartoonishly evil, but this incident with Penny certainly seems to confirm that they in fact, are. What a world. I will now burn their books in my campfire out back, and continue my hopeless search for tech people who have a shred of humanity and compassion.

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