T E C H N O L O G Y
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Edited by
Joshua Brustein and
Anne VanderMey ILLUSTRATIONBYLARISSAHOFF.DATA:PITCHBOOKBloomberg Businessweek March 8, 2021● Silicon Valley’s hottest app
is getting more than just money
from its prominent investorsInvestment firm Andreessen Horowitz has supplied
much of the capital that helped spark the sudden
rise of Clubhouse, the audio-based social network
that’s become one of the hottest things in Silicon
Valley and has drawn in megacelebrities includ-
ing Oprah and Drake. In a twist on the standard
venture capital model, it also provides a good deal
of the talent responsible for the content.
Clubhouse is an invite-only app, structured as a
series of “rooms,” where speakers lead discussions
in front of audiences who can also be called on to
participate. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz,
the founders of the firm, which is often referred
to as A16Z—a play on the letters in its name—host
their own show on Clubhouse. They also regularlyshow up in other rooms, and A16Z’s other partners
encourage people from their wide range of con-
tacts to hold court. The entire thing can resemble a
smartphone-based version of the conferences and
salons that venture capitalists rely on to burnish
their thought-leader credentials and build hype for
projects. (Bloomberg LP, which owns Bloomberg
Businessweek, has invested in Andreessen Horowitz.)
In perhaps the app’s biggest coup to date, Tesla
Inc. co-founder Elon Musk appeared in January on
Good Time, the Clubhouse show A16Z partner Sriram
Krishnan hosts with his wife, Aarthi Ramamurthy,
Facebook Inc.’s director of product. The audience
quickly ballooned to the 5,000- person capacity
Clubhouse has set for rooms, and Musk’s conversa-
tion with Vlad Tenev, Robinhood Markets Inc. chief
executive officer, about GameStop Corp.’s stock
trading drew national press coverage.
A few days later, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of
Facebook—on whose board Andreessen sits—
showed up on Good Time to discuss the company’sCan Clubhouse Keep
The Party Going?