Sriram Krishnan, General Partner @ Andreessen Horowitz
Sriram Krishnan is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, investing in early-stage startups. He is also a social media product veteran who previously held leadership roles at Twitter, Snap, and Facebook. Along with his wife Aarthi Ramamurthy, he hosts the "Good Time Show" on Clubhouse which covers interesting people in the world of technology, sports, and entertainment. He also publishes "The Observer Effect".
In this episode we spoke with Sriram about the following:
How he navigated being a rebel in a conformist culture
What he learned working alongside Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey
Why he believes creating content and building a personal brand online is an infinite game
You can listen to him below or wherever else you get to your podcasts.
Rebelling within a conformist culture
Growing up, there was a high premium on conformity. It was better if you were not a rebel. You did not speak up and you were very respectful to your elders. I grew up in a world where you did not argue with somebody who was older than you or more senior than you. This led to a lot of problems within technology companies. I remember when I was at Microsoft, where we had all these issues between folks in the US and in India. People in the US would push back more often, but people in India would not want to displease their US counterparts and would simply say yes to all of their requests.
One thing I really lucked out on was that we were rebels in our own little way. We [his partner] were always known as the people who did not conform. We always stood out in our own ways. We were always a little loud and were the first to disagree. When that happens you catch people’s attention; often in a good way. In a world of conformity, it can be really valuable to have somebody who does not think the same as everyone else.
The importance of playing infinite games
You will usually do well if you are coming from a good place and you want the company you are working at to do well. What I found over time was that if you are authentic and have good intentions, things tend to work out well for you. One of the things I am a big fan of is the concept of an infinite game. Everything you do can either be a finite or infinite game. If you think you are playing an infinite game, over time things pretty much keep compounding forever. One of the things I have found is I could get away with being myself and being me because I genuinely wanted other people to do well. I really did want the institutions I worked at to do well.
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Until next time,
Jay and Angie