UD #01: Software is eating the rest of the world

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NBA, NFL, and MLB are only held among teams based in the USA and Canada. Yet these leagues frequently crown 'World Champions'. Similarly, in Hollywood superhero movies, 'saving the world' usually just means 'saving the USA'. Marc Andreessen famously declared that 'software is eating the world'. One look at a16z's portfolio makes it clear that, until recently, he really meant software is eating the USA. a16z has started to make its first steps outside of the USA, but asides from the occasional opportunistic deal, the fund continues to primarily focus on the USA.

This piece is the first of a three-part series covering three funds that, unlike a16z, have bet big and early on technology-enabled business models across the world.

This is the first real edition of Unevenly Distributed, and if you never read another edition, you'd be able to track the diffusion of technology, entrepreneurship, and venture capital across emerging markets by simply closely following three funds that I will cover in this series.

The Launch Pad

[He] has been one of the most positive forces in startups ever in that he shifted the balance of power away from business speakers to the coders. In the first generation of the web, it cost millions of capital to write your first line of code so you had to raise money on the back of a business plan. That business plan had to be written by an MBA and that MBA took it to the venture capitalists and the venture capitalists back then were ex-bankers cause they needed to liaise with the bankers who would ultimately take you public and [companies] went public every week.

[He]... went to all the coders like 'you know what? I can actually teach you all this stuff. It's not as complex as you think. I can demystify the legal papers and I can demystify the business terms and you can be a business guy'

— Chris Sacca talking about the founder of The Summer Founder's Program

David Beirne joined Benchmark in 1997 as the fifth partner, he joined from Ramsey Beirne Associates, a recruiting firm he co-founded.