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Chris Dixon

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For the Rhodesian Air Force pilot, see Green Leader. For others of a similar name, see Chris Dixon (American football), Chris Dickson (disambiguation), and ChrisMD.
Chris Dixon
Dixon at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2015
Born1971 or 1972 (age 52–53)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materColumbia University (BA)
Harvard University (MBA)
TitleGeneral Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

Chris Dixon (born 1971/1972)[1] is an American internet entrepreneur and investor. He is a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He is also the co-founder and former CEO of Hunch.[2] He was #1 on the Midas List in 2022.[3] Dixon is known as a cryptocurrency and Web3 evangelist.[4]

Early life and education

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Dixon grew up in Ohio.[5] He earned a BA and an MA from Columbia University, majoring in philosophy,[6] and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. His early college days were at Wesleyan University before he transferred.[7]

Career

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Business

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Dixon joined the venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners.[8]

In 2005, Dixon co-founded SiteAdvisor, a web-security startup that was bought by security company McAfee in 2006.[9] In 2009, he founded Hunch with Caterina Fake and Tom Pinckney, which was acquired by eBay in 2011.[10]

Andreessen Horowitz

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As of 2022, Dixon is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm in Menlo Park, California. After joining the firm in 2012,[4] Dixon led a variety of investments for the firm including FiftyThree,[11] Soylent,[12] and Nootrobox.[13] He sits[when?] on the board of 3D printing startup Shapeways.[14]

He was #1 on the Midas List in early 2022.[3]

Dixon became an early advocate for investments in Bitcoin, which he championed in various blog posts that became "something of a gospel among young crypto entrepreneurs."[4] By 2014, Andreessen Horowitz had invested almost $50 million into Bitcoin-related endeavors such as the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.[15][4] In 2022, Fortune called Dixon "the world's top crypto investor."[16] In an October 2022 article titled "Andreessen Horowitz Went All In on Crypto at the Worst Possible Time", the Wall Street Journal reported that during the first half of 2022, the cryptocurrency fund founded by Dixon at Andreessen Horowitz had lost around 40% of its value, a decline "much larger than the 10% to 20% drops recorded by other venture funds, which have largely avoided the risky practice of purchasing volatile cryptocurrencies."[4]

With Dixon as a General Partner overseeing his firm's crypto investments,[17] in October 2022 he announced a new accelerator program to support crypto startups in Los Angeles.[18]

Dixon also led the firm's investment and sits on the board of Oculus VR.[19]

Read Write Own

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Dixon's book Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet was published in January 2024. It was at No. 9 on the New York Times Best Sellers List for Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction for the period ending February 18, 2024, though with a dagger to indicate bulk purchases.[20] The book did not appear on any NYT lists in subsequent weeks. Andreesen Horowitz staff admitted to Vice that several of their portfolio companies had bulk-purchased the book.[21] The book received mixed reviews.[22][23]

References

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  1. ^ Konrad, Alex (April 12, 2022). "How Chris Dixon's Dive Down The Crypto Rabbit Hole Made Him The World's Top Venture Capitalist". Forbes. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  2. ^ "Andreessen Horowitz Hires Chris Dixon Away From EBay". The New York Times. November 19, 2012.
  3. ^ a b "The Midas List 2022". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-04-27.
  4. ^ a b c d e Jin, Berber (2022-10-26). "Andreessen Horowitz Went All In on Crypto at the Worst Possible Time". WSJ. Retrieved 2022-11-17.
  5. ^ "Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z (EP.172)" (PDF). Capital Allocators. 2021-01-11. Retrieved 2021-01-16.
  6. ^ "Chris Dixon". Columbia Entrepreneurship. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  7. ^ "Super-Seed Funds-- Back to the Future". Harvard Business School Club of New York. November 2012. Archived from the original on 2014-08-06. Retrieved 2014-08-04.
  8. ^ "Chris Dixon". Andreessen Horowitz blog. November 2012. Archived from the original on 2018-09-26.
  9. ^ "McAfee buys SiteAdvisor". Computer World. April 2006.
  10. ^ "eBay snaps up recommendations service Hunch". VentureBeat. November 2011.
  11. ^ "FiftyThree, Maker Of Drawing App Paper, Raises $15 Million From Andreessen Horowitz And Others". TechCrunch. June 2013.
  12. ^ "Soylent Closes $1.5M In Seed Funding From Lerer, Andreessen Horowitz". TechCrunch. October 2013.
  13. ^ "Andreessen Horowitz to Invest in Nootropics Start-Up", The New York Times, December 3, 2015
  14. ^ "Chris Dixon and Andreessen Horowitz invest $30M in 3D printing marketplace Shapeways". VentureBeat. April 2013.
  15. ^ "Bitcoin's Biggest Bet: Andreessen Horowitz Leads $25 Million Investment in Coinbase". AllThingsD. December 2013.
  16. ^ "The unauthorized profile of Chris Dixon, the world's top crypto investor". Fortune. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
  17. ^ "A16z's Chris Dixon talks relaunching the 'crypto startup school,' Meta's role in the metaverse". 2022.
  18. ^ "A16z's Chris Dixon announces new accelerator program for crypto founders in LA". 2022.
  19. ^ "Oculus raises $75 million to jump-start the virtual reality business". TheVerge. December 2013.
  20. ^ "Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction". New York Times. February 18, 2024. Archived from the original on February 9, 2024.
  21. ^ Pearson, Jordan (8 February 2024). "How Tech Firms Made a Crypto-Boosting Book an NYT Best Seller by Gaming the System". Vice.
  22. ^ "Missing Link: Die Blockchain-Illusion – Chris Dixons Web3-Vision hinterfragt". 3 March 2024.
  23. ^ Roberts, Jeff John (31 January 2024). "Review: In 'Read Write Own,' venture capitalist Chris Dixon makes a serious case for crypto in wake of FTX debacle". yahoo!finance.
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