Skype

The 'buy the brand' growth hack a16z used to launch big

Daniel Gross explains how Andreessen Horowitz launched fast: they bought secondary stakes in Skype and Facebook and put those logos on the site, the borrowed-credibility equivalent of 'I invested in Apple and Amazon.'

“what they did is to get big quick, the testosterone they took, the human growth hormone they took is they did a called buy the brand strategy where he went out of the gate and he put up on his website, you know, Skype and Facebook. I think they bought secondary in both companies, which is not too far from me saying, ah, welcome to my venture capital fund.”