- On June 13, legendary venture capitalist Marc Andreessen told angel investor Sriram Krishnan about his now-famous essay, "It's Time to Build," for Krishnan's newsletter, The Observer Effect.
- Andreessen said he wrote the entire essay, which calls on entrepreneurs to use the pandemic and related shutdowns to reinvent and rebuild malfunctioning parts of society, in a single evening.
- He felt compelled to write the post after reading an article about the widespread shortages of personal protective equipment in the nation's hospitals.
- He felt inspired by locals who were volunteering rain ponchos as medical gowns of last resort, and thought entrepreneurs could do more to build systems that functioned better than existing institutions.
- Now, he hopes entrepreneurs tackle broken institutions in housing and education in addition to fixing the healthcare system, what he calls the "holy trinity of our modern dilemma."
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Marc Andreessen is one of Silicon Valley's most notable thought leaders. Outside his success in backing major tech giants like Facebook and LinkedIn early on, the lauded venture capitalist also commands a following for his often unique perspectives on where the technology industry is heading.
So when he told entrepreneurs it was time to build, in a now-famous essay in March, the entire Valley listened.
That essay, called"It's Time to Build," blamed America's lackluster response to the coronavirus pandemic on an inability to build for itself, and instead relying on outsourced production for necessary items like personal protective equipment. The lethal coronavirus was, at the time, mostly sweeping through US cities on the East and West coasts.
In a June 13 conversation reported in angel investor Sriram Krishnan's newsletter The Observer Effect, Andreessen revealed that the post was written in a single night as a direct response to an article he read in the Wall Street Journal that painted a dire picture of the havoc the pandemic was wreaking on population centers such as New York City.
"I decided I couldn't take anymore," Andreessen said. "I just snapped. I literally just sat down and pounded out that essay over the next four hours, fueled by rage."
Part of Andreessen's call to arms was for entrepreneurs to rebuild and reimagine elements of American society that were failing by many measures. Top of mind in March was public health and healthcare writ large, and the article that sparked his rage covered the need for local members of the public to donate spare rain ponchos to doctors as medical gowns of last resort.
Months later, the pandemic has revealed other structurally unsound parts of American society that are in need of a rebuild, Andreessen said. Particularly of concern, and therefore rife with opportunity, are housing and education.
"It's kind of the holy trinity of our modern dilemma," Andreessen said. "It's health care, it's education, and it's housing. It's the big three."
Although Andreessen's markets-first approach to systemic change has been criticized by politicians like former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, he reiterated in his conversation with Krishnan that market forces, namely increased building and competition, could help bring down the exorbitant costs of housing, healthcare, and secondary education. He said that his blog post had a positive reception on both sides of the political aisle, with praise coming from Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California but also progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's former chief of staff Saikat Chakrabarti.
"Look, there are definitely a lot of conversations to be had about, like free market versus government versus this or that," Andreessen said. "But both sides know that something's wrong, they can feel it."
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