General partner of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) explained why the blue-chip venture capital fund is committed to the cryptocurrency industry even in difficult times. Ali Yahya noted that “crypto winter is the ideal time for investment”. He said it's almost a mantra for capitalists who have faith in the underlying technology and that markets will bounce back.
The specialist noted that a16z “still has an 85-person cryptocurrency team and we are 100% committed to this space.”. From Yahya's perspective, if you are a founder and launch a startup in a bear market, it means you believe in technology. “They decided to bet on their company or even their entire career in this field,” says the expert. “We try to support such people.”
He noted that “in a sense, cryptowinter filters out non-believers.”. Yahya is looking for startup teams that are ready to make cryptocurrency a mainstream tool.. The specialist emphasized that many venture capitalists left the Web3 sector as soon as problems began there. “Now they are chasing the next hot topic: artificial intelligence (AI),” he added.
According to Yahya, there remain only a small number of investors who have actually been in the Web3 startup space for a long time. As for a16z, this company is always open and ready to invest in promising projects.
The partner assured that “one of the biggest challenges in a bull market is understanding the true motives of startup founders. This is why it is very important to ask all kinds of questions. The project may turn out to be a banal extortion of money or another type of fraud. So, the fact that some companies open during the crypto winter means: we should take this into account when deciding whether to invest in a startup or not.”