andrewchen
Andrew Chen, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, has transitioned his writing to Substack, leaving his previous website, andrewchen.com, as an archive of his extensive work. The site features a wealth of essays, totaling over 650, on topics such as startups, user growth, and network effects. It also houses his best-selling book, "The Cold Start Problem," which delves into the experiences of successful companies like Slack, Zoom, and Uber. Chen encourages readers to explore his recent essays and highlights some of his most popular pieces, including "Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing," "The red flags and magic numbers that investors look for in your startup’s metrics," and "Consumer startups are awesome, and here’s what I’m looking for at a16z." The site is a valuable resource for anyone interested in the intricacies of the startup world and the strategies behind building successful companies.
Andrew Chen Archives
Dear readers,
I have moved to Substack and I will be writing there from now on:
In the meantime, I will leave andrewchen.com up for posterity and for archives. Enjoy!
About me and archives
Hello there! I’m a partner at Andreessen Horowitz focused on tech startups based in LA and SF.
I write a newsletter. You’d enjoy if you like long-form essays on startups, user growth, and network effects — I’ve written over 650+ essays. If you want more, I’ve written The Cold Start Problem, a best-selling book featuring interviews from the founders/teams behind Slack, Clubhouse, Zoom, Twitch, Tinder, Reddit, Uber, Airbnb, PayPal, and more.
PS. Looking for recent essays? Look here.
PPS. Or, check out some of my best essays below or see the full list of featured essays.
- Growth Hacker is the new VP Marketing
- The red flags and magic numbers that investors look for in your startup’s metrics (80 slide deck)
- Consumer startups are awesome, and here’s what I’m looking for at a16z (70 slide deck)
- How to build a growth team – lessons from Uber, Hubspot, and others (50 slides)
- The Next Feature Fallacy: The fallacy that the next new feature will suddenly make people use your product
- Why consumer product metrics are all terrible
- New data shows losing 80% of mobile users is normal, and why the best apps do better
- How startups die from their addiction to paid marketing
- Why the best way to drive viral growth to increase retention and engagement
- How to actually calculate CAC
- The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs
- After the Techcrunch bump: Life in the Trough of Sorrow
- Building the initial team for seed stage startups
- The Power User Curve
- A Practitioner’s Guide to Net Promoter Score
- Required reading for marketplace startups: The 20 best essays
- How to interview for your growth team (from execs at Atlassian, Gusto, Hubspot)
- Why “Uber for X” failed: The supply side is king
- Uber’s virtuous cycle. Geographic density, hyperlocal marketplaces, and why drivers are key