Andreessen Horowitz names Connie Chan a General Partner, ending the VC firm's no-promotion policy
and scrapped a rule that the firm candidly admits was outdated.” http://www.recode.net/... Andrew Chen / @andrewchen : Super pumped for @conniechan our newest general partner at @a16z! Her insights on products in China have been - directly leading to our investments in Lime, Pinterest, others. Very excited http://www.recode.net/... Thanks: @alexrkonrad
Context & Ripple Effects
Until this promotion, a16z's general-partner bench was built almost entirely by importing names: months earlier the firm brought in Andrew Chen from Uber as a general partner, even as Lars Dalgaard departed to start his own fund. The no-promotion policy meant deal-sourcing talent inside the firm had no path to the top — and Chan, whose China product insights directly shaped bets on Lime and Pinterest, was the case that broke it.
First-order effects
- Connie Chan becomes a16z's first partner promoted from within, and the firm publicly retires a rule it concedes was outdated — giving its internal investing staff a visible route to general partner.
Second-order effects
- The firm's talent model now runs on two tracks — external hires like Andrew Chen alongside homegrown promotions — raising the bar for rival firms whose own senior investors are imported rather than developed, since sourcers with track records can credibly demand partnership elsewhere.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, venture firms shift from renting reputation through marquee external hires to compounding it internally, because the alternative is losing proven deal-sourcers to competitors or their own funds — a structural change in how VC careers and partnerships are built.
The trend: Venture capital is moving from star external hires toward developing internal deal-sourcers into general partners, as firms compete on retained talent rather than imported names.