Tech

People Marketplaces are a lot like eBay  -- connecting buyer and seller -- but for services, says a16z General Partner Jeff Jordan. These two-sided marketplaces are cropping up across the economy, from finding a ride to house cleaning and pet sitting. Now Instacart is bringing the People Marketplace model to the grocery business -- a massive market that has seen very little change even as the internet and mobile have upended most retail categories. Joined by a16z's Sam Gerstenzang, this segment outlines the elements of a People Marketplace; why the model is gathering momentum now; and if we all remember what happened with Webvan, why is this time is different?

a16zPodcast: People Marketplaces Take On One of the Last Great E-Commerce Opportunities -- Groceries

The datacenter has long been -- there's no nice way to put this -- a bit of a snoozer. Expensive boxes running expensive software. No more, says a16z General Partner Peter Levine. Along with Chris Dixon, Levine lays out a vision for the datacenter of the future. Building on the technology established by companies like Facebook and Google, Levine and Dixon describe a software-led transformation of the datacenter, one where the mobile supply chain and fast-moving companies are reimagining everything -- from the underlying architecture to new business models. Be prepared to get in the weeds, hear Levine talk about the next opportunity, “hosted instances,” Dixon describe the “the dream within the dream,” and discover why the datacenter is about to get exciting.

a16z Podcast: Datacenter of the Future

Managing enterprise networks with thousands of users and endpoints has been hard enough. Now that large enterprise networks routinely include hundreds of thousands of nodes it’s amazingly difficult and time-consuming (we’re talking days often)  to get definitive answers to seemingly simple questions like, how many PCs do I have running? Never mind, how many PCs do I have that could be at risk of the Heartbleed virus? Tanium, the most recent company to join the a16z portfolio, offers a systems management and security tool that allows administrators to ask virtually any question about the configuration, performance, and complexion of an enterprise network and get an answer in seconds. Tanium CTO and Co-founder Orion Hindawi and a16z Board Partner Steven Sinofsky discuss the origins of Tanium; the invention of  the “linear peer-to-peer communications” architecture that turbo-charges the Tanium solution; and with Internet of Things coming online fast, the prospect of networks quickly going to millions and billions of nodes. 

Tech

Phing Chov