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Josh Elman has shaped products at some of the biggest consumer platforms in tech. He helped lead product at LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, invested in startups at Greylock, and took senior operating roles at Robinhood and Apple. Now a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, he joins us for his first external podcast interview since joining the firm.
In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:
Why anyone can clone a product’s features within days, but nobody can clone where a founder is actually headed next
Why we haven’t seen many new consumer social networking sites
The new era for voice
Is trust the new moat and what does it actually mean?
The pricing challenge for today’s startups
Is S.F still the best place to launch and grow a startup?
Watch or listen now across YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and X
Download the transcript 👇
Timestamps
(0:00) Meet Josh Elman
(2:40) Why Josh Is Back in Investing Mode
(4:19) The New Consumer Experiences
(6:00) Where in the Journey Are We?
(8:00) What Comes Next for Consumers?
(10:58) Is Trust the New Moat?
(11:40) The New Way to Search
(13:20) Experiences That Haven't Emerged Yet
(15:01) Trends Josh Is Excited About
(19:08) Whatnot
(21:05) AI Microdramas
(26:43) Why Is Social So Hard?
(32:20) Multi-Agent Communication
(36:19) New Platforms With Distribution
(38:27) The New Era for Voice
(43:01) The Pricing Challenge
(46:47) What Excites Investors Today
(49:14) How Network Effects Have Changed
(51:36) Idea to Clone: Days
(52:39) Why the U.S. Wins at Consumer
(54:34) Is SF Still the Best Place to Start a Company?
(55:43) Josh's Favorite Company
(57:35) Lessons from Ev Williams
Lessons from this episode with Josh
The cycle of adoption
One person built a category-defining agentic tool almost entirely on his own, working out of his apartment. Josh uses it to mark the moment agentic AI went from theory to something people could actually feel the difference of, and why that shift is what’s now pulling the entire industry into this new wave.
Multi-agent communication (agents planning your Friday night)
Josh’s most vivid vision in the episode: agents quietly talking to each other on your behalf, turning a private thought such as, wanting to see a movie into a real plan with friends before you even have to ask.
Why building consumer social is very hard
We know building consumer startups is super difficult. Josh does a relatable comparison of why Discord, Musical.ly, and Instagram all won by solving completely different problems, not by competing head-on. He describes the potential opportunity as, we need something that feels genuinely new, not another variant of what’s already out there.
What excites investors today
Josh lays out his four-part framework for what makes a great consumer product: clear value on first use, an easy substitution for existing behavior, organic word of mouth, and long-term retention.
The new era for voice
The take on why voice will never fully replace typing, and where it actually shines: in the car, prepping for a podcast, or rehearsing a hard conversation before having it for real.
The pricing challenge
We break down the tension building under consumer AI: free, subsidized tools are colliding with the real cost of inference. Josh traces it back to his first week at LinkedIn, physically moving servers, to show how infrastructure costs have shifted from fixed to variable.
Where to find and connect with us
Follow Ollie on X: https://x.com/ollieforsyth
Follow Josh on X: https://x.com/joshelman
Visit Andreessen Horowitz: https://a16z.com
Our partner for today's episode is Harmonic - your go-to startup database: https://harmonic.ai
Previous episodes include
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