Andreessen Horowitz names Connie Chan a General Partner, ending the VC firm's no-promotion policy
Connie Chan is Andreessen Horowitz's first general partner promoted from within. — Andreessen Horowitz has prided itself on breaking some of venture capital's long-time norms in its nine years of operation.
Context & Ripple Effects
When Andreessen Horowitz promoted Connie Chan to general partner in 2018, it broke its own founding rule that partners only come from outside — a stance tested just months earlier when it hired Andrew Chen, ex-head of growth at Uber, straight into a general partner seat (Andrew Chen's external hire). Chan was the first person ever elevated from within the nine-year-old firm.
The move matters because a16z had built its brand on breaking VC norms, and this one touched its own org chart rather than the market. A later profile of Chan's sourcing record at Pinterest and Lime validated the bet, and the firm's subsequent expansion — a $2B fund with all 150 employees registered as financial advisers — showed a partnership being rebuilt for scale.
First-order effects
- Connie Chan gains the general partner title and the carry and deal authority that come with it, while every junior investor at a16z now has a visible internal path to partner for the first time.
Second-order effects
- Rival firms that also recruit senior talent only from outside — the standard Chan's promotion just abandoned — face pressure to open their own ladders or risk losing rising investors to firms that promote.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, elite VC firms shift from founder-network partnerships toward institutionalized career tracks, mirroring the broader professionalization a16z signaled by registering its whole staff as advisers and, later, entering politics directly.
The trend: Venture capital is institutionalizing internal talent pipelines as firms scale from small partnerships into multi-fund platforms.