The Kiwi Who Cracked Silicon Valley: Now a partner at Andreessen Horowitz a16z

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Oct 23, 2025

David Booth, a community architect and partner at Andreessen Horowitz, shares insights from his journey in connecting founders. He discusses how On Deck evolved into a powerful network that supports over 1,000 startups. David emphasizes the importance of building community for startup success and explains the nuanced shift from operator to investor. He also highlights the value of authenticity in pitching investors and advises Kiwis on balancing local ambitions with global aspirations, all while fostering meaningful relationships in Silicon Valley.

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ADVICE

Warm Up Before You Fundraise

Build relationships before fundraising; go to market early to plant seeds rather than cold-fundraising on a single trip.
Ask how your product helps others and let high-trust contacts warm introductions for you.

INSIGHT

Turn VC Services Into Network Effects

Scaleable venture value comes from turning firm services into network effects across portfolio teams.
The knowledge a startup needs often lives in other founders and recent practitioners, not in documents.

ADVICE

Measure Impact, Not NPS Alone

Measure community success by directional impact: who changed trajectory because of it, not just satisfaction scores.
Track velocity plus direction: did the community create a breakout outcome for members?

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From AngelList to OnDeck to Blackbird, David has spent a decade designing the connective tissue between people, products, and ideas.

NZ's own David Booth now joins a16z as Partner and Head of Ecosystem.

His mission: make a16z the F1 pit crew of venture, where network power compounds and every founder gets faster.

David helped build one of the world’s most impactful founder communities through On Deck, helping over 1,000 startups raise more than $2B. But his path wasn’t conventional. He built momentum quietly — through community, consistency, and backing other founders long before becoming a VC himself.

In this conversation, David shares how he went from building a dinner-table movement to being invited to join one of the most powerful VC firms in the world.

It’s a story about showing up, lifting others, and trusting that if you do the hard things well, people will notice.

How On Deck grew from idea to $20M+ revenue and a $70M raise
Lessons from his time as Entrepreneur in Residence at Blackbird
How building a Kiwi founder network in SF led to a16z
What great VCs actually look for in early-stage founders
Why advising others made him a better founder — and now a better investor

🔑 Topics Covered:

The crossroad moment where he almost walked away from the company he built
Why fundraising is just as much about self-awareness as it is about metrics
How scaling culture is the real moat, and why most startups miss it
The psychological shift from operator to investor — and what founders still get wrong
Why joining a16z isn’t the finish line—it’s the beginning of a new mission

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