Newcomer · Sep 24, 2026 · 51m · 36m saved
With Josh Elman, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz
Josh Elman believed until last fall that a consumer startup needed its own AI researchers to be worth backing. Seeing OpenClaw, an agent one developer built around existing models, changed his mind, and it is why he returned to venture capital at Andreessen Horowitz.
Much of the industry has treated AI as the model companies' race to win. Elman said the value in consumer products now sits in the software built around the models, the way the internet and mobile each produced many large winners, and that OpenAI and Anthropic do not own the outcome.
"I look at this not as OpenAI and Anthropic's game to lose or win."
Josh Elman, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, on Newcomer with Eric Newcomer. As a Greylock partner he invested in Musical.ly, which became TikTok, and he spent the last few years at Apple working on how it told the story of Siri and Apple Intelligence, leaving the week of the WWDC announcement of the new Siri.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 51 minutes of audio, 15 minutes of reading.
Here are the 18 lessons that matter.
Key Takeaways
Chatbots in 2014 and 2015 were too early: Operator had to use humans, which broke its economics
OpenClaw showed him that the value in consumer AI is in the software around the model
AI agents competing for one restaurant table will force new ways to allocate scarce slots
OpenAI and Anthropic will not be the only winners, as the internet and mobile each produced many
There is no room for another short-video network, but micro-drama apps are a new business spun off from it
AI's job-loss pitch is why the public turned on it, in his view
Apple would not ship Siri until it worked at mainstream quality, which took years
Growth starts with a product people return to, not a new distribution trick
1. Back To Build Consumer
Eric Newcomer listed Elman's career: a venture capitalist at Greylock who invested in Discord and Musical.ly, which became TikTok, and in Operator, an early chatbot company, as well as Houseparty and Meerkat. He then went to Robinhood and Apple, and is now at Andreessen Horowitz.
Why he came back
His career has been about making products people bring into their lives, Elman said. About eight years ago he decided the best way to make consumer products was to work on them again. Apple was an incredible place to work, but he now sees an opening for consumer startups to grow into the next wave of great companies.
"And I just couldn't resist the opportunity to go and be part of this incredible new wave." — Josh Elman
