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Firm > Fund | Andreessen Horowitz

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Welcome back to our “Idea of the Week” series. This week we’ve got David Haber, on the difference between a “fund” versus a “firm” and why choose the latter. I believe that most investors are running funds, and very few people are building firms. What do I mean by that? A fund, by my definition, has a single objective function: “how do I generate the most carry with the fewest people in the shortest amount of time?” Whereas a firm, in my definition, has two objectives. One is delivering exceptional returns, but the second is equally interesting: “How do I build a source of compounding competitive advantage?” Funds get more fragile with scale. So building competitive advantage becomes existential if you want to build an institution that endures. The problem is, that isn’t how fund managers are encouraged to spend their time or their focus. Most funds are run by an alpha decision maker who oversees all investments. They spend most of their time thinking about the next marginal deal, and

Firm > Fund | Andreessen Horowitz General Firm > Fund David Haber Posted January 12, 2026 Subscribe Share Share Email X LinkedIn Facebook Hacker News WhatsApp Flipboard Reddit Share Share Email X LinkedIn Facebook Hacker News WhatsApp Flipboard Reddit This first appeared in the a16z News newsletter. Subscribe to stay on top of the latest news. Welcome back to our "Idea of the Week" series. This week we've got David Haber , on the difference between a "fund" versus a "firm" and why choose the latter. Firm > Fund David Haber I believe that most investors are running funds , and very few people a

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