Andreessen Horowitz (aka “a16z”), a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, produce one of the best podcast series in any market. This month they have one of the most useful podcasts on analyst relations, online at SoundCloud. It steps through many of the key points for people starting off in analyst relations: what analysts do, how to use them, how to inform them and, most interestingly for me, the process of category creation. This is what they have to say about it:
Andreessen Horowitz (aka “a16z”), a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, produce one of the best podcast series in any market. This month they have one of the most useful podcasts on analyst relations, online at In the age of the internet — where information is freely available online, and connections between sellers and buyers of software products are visible on LinkedIn — do analysts really matter? Do they play a role in decision-making for purchases from smaller vendors like tech startups, especially given the rise of the developer as a buyer?
Or what if you’re trying to create a new category … do you need to be on a Gartner Magic Quadrant or Forrester Wave or similar? We answer these questions and more in this episode of the a16z Podcast, featuring former analysts, client managers, and/or product marketing veterans Stacy D’Amico (who joined a16z after a decade at Gartner), Michael King (director of enterprise product marketing at GitHub), and Aneel Lakhani, in conversation with Sharon Chang of the a16z market development team.
The conversation covers everything startups should know about analyst relations, from why and how and when to engage with analysts to whether to consider pay-for-play (no!) or more boutique/niche analyst firms. Most importantly: given their limited resources but big market visions, how can startups get the most out of analyst relations?
