Probably the most entertaining moments in VC this week was a bit of rage-bait advertising from Normal Catalyst.
In a now-viral put up on X that parodies the previous Mac vs. PC commercials, the enterprise agency — higher often known as GC — posted a “VC vs GC” video on Wednesday. The VC was performed by a tall actor in a saggy shirt and vest with a distinctly giant, bald head — an obvious dig at Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen. (However the actual Andreessen by no means appears that matted).
The GC character was performed by a person with a thick head of darkish hair, white kicks, and an inclination to stare deeply into the digicam. He was clearly alleged to characterize actor Justin Lengthy’s cooler, “hipper” Mac character from the unique commercials, in distinction to John Hodgman’s straight-laced “sq.” PC persona.
GC asks VC about his robotic canine.
VC explains, “That is Woof AI” after which extols the virtues of the bogus companion (you don’t must stroll it or break the information to the youngsters when it dies!) and declares, “You’ll by no means need an actual canine after this.” VC mentions that his agency is main the seed spherical and pitches GC to hitch the cap desk.
GC explains how individuals like actual canines and remarks, “I’d love to listen to extra, however we even have a very excessive bar round duty for this stuff.”
Then VC kicks the AI canine and the canine chases him off the display. The put up has now been seen 2.4 million instances with a whole lot of shares and feedback, and hundreds of likes.
I would need to learn to date between the traces that I would be off the web page and peering into one other e-book to unpack this, however I am going to strive anyway. The message, roughly: Different VCs, and a16z specifically, will fund something. GC will not. (I requested about this. GC hasn’t responded.)
It is a pointed argument if that’s the case, and never completely with out foundation. Andreessen’s agency steadily invests in firms which can be thought-about controversial, just like the surveillance startup Flock Safety, AI notetaker Cluely, and Adam Neumann’s Flow. However the identical measure might simply as simply be utilized to Normal Catalyst. GC’s portfolio consists of Anduril, Percepta, and Polymarket.
My takeaway is that GC needed to point out an a16z-type character kicking a canine, with out anybody really kicking an precise canine as a result of that might be a significant drawback.
Lots of the feedback on the video appeared to seek out the video, and the selection to put up it, cringe. A lot favored and cherished it, too.
Compulsive X person Andreessen himself could not resist responding, many, many instances. He mentioned it made GC look “smarmy” and mentioned, “Keep tuned for our upcoming advert marketing campaign, ‘We’re the VC who doesn’t sneer at your idea.'” He saved going from there. My private favourite was: “The factor they acquired proper is the relative heights.”
As others famous, you recognize you have hit the correct rage bait when the goal takes it.
There have been plenty of a16z companions and staffers who got here to Andreessen’s protection, too. A lot in order that their reactions drew lots of comments. My private favourite on this class was from VSC Ventures VC Jay Kapoor: “GC vs. A16Z beef is like Kendrick vs. Drake for individuals who know what a 409A valuation is.”
If you buy by way of hyperlinks in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t have an effect on our editorial independence.