It's because Andreessen is the HN reader's ideal VC, on paper. He is (was?) highly technical, he built a very successful product with Netscape. He also came of age during the first tech bubble and in theory should be able to see through the BS.
Yet nearly every public statement he's made since becoming a full-time VC has been about pumping the worst companies and claiming they're the future. Airbnb, WeWork, a metric f'ton of crypto startups.
It's almost painful watching the inventor of Netscape trying to postulate to Tyler Cowen how Web3 is the new internet:
Not to take anything away from Netscape, I do think there was interesting technical things happening with that browser, but the company never made money.
I would go as far as to say their 'real' product was an avenue to attack Microsoft - not the browser they made.
They got a lot of money by positioning themselves as an anti-Microsoft vector, had a huge IPO as an unprofitable company during the dot com boom, successfully entrapped Microsoft in an anti-trust case, then got acquired by AOL.
Of course I'm not a billionaire and I don't doubt it took a lot of skill to earn that money. I'm just not sure those are the same skills you need to build a profitable business or useful product.
Yet nearly every public statement he's made since becoming a full-time VC has been about pumping the worst companies and claiming they're the future. Airbnb, WeWork, a metric f'ton of crypto startups.
It's almost painful watching the inventor of Netscape trying to postulate to Tyler Cowen how Web3 is the new internet:
https://twitter.com/liron/status/1537186589486460928