Michael Heat: It is an amazing Wired Valley, a program about people, power and impact of the Silicon Valley. I am Michael Calore, director of consumer technology and culture here in Wired.
Zoë Schiffer: I am Zoe Schiffer, Wired business and industry director.
Lauren Goode: I am Lauren Goode. I am the older writer Wired.
Michael Heat: Today we are talking about the Andreessen brand. It is one of the most outstanding Venture Capital capital in the Silicon Valley. He is also a co -founder of the early Nuescape Internet browser company and until he was the highest democratic donor long ago, but in recent years Andreessen has fully changed his political stripes. Nowadays, he is a Trump administration advisor and helps recruit people from the Silicon Valley to introduce ideas to the performance of the Trump government department. He was even called the unpaid interns of Doge.
Lauren Goode: How does he eat at night?
Zoë Schiffer: Yes, it seems to me that it is something that someone who has never been an unpaid intern would say: “Ha, ha, ha”.
Michael Heat: Imagine that Andreessen eats a lot of Ramen pasta and I think you can get there. Now Andreessen is not only someone with a long and successful career in technology. He is also a figure similar to the godfather in the industry, who is known for giving the tone of culture in the Silicon Valley. So how does Andreessen finally turn right in the fifty? How did he pass from prior support Clintons/Gore, Kerry/Obama, to be an critical part of Donald Trump’s transition back to the oval office? Zoe, let’s start this conversation with you. I want to ask you to talk about Mark Andreesen’s worldview.
Zoë Schiffer: Fortunately, and I will just say that we are going to hit the great “allegedly” in every comment that we order in this podcast, because in this political climate we should do it. Okay, so I want to start by telling about something Mark Andreessen calls a contract. Have any of you heard about it?
Michael Heat: Yes.
Zoë Schiffer: Do you know what I’m talking about?
Lauren Goode: I am asking for enlightenment, please.
Zoë Schiffer: Okay, so the contract is a concept that Mark Andreessen talked about on many podcasts, including honestly from Bari Weiss in December.
Marcs Andreats [Archival audio]: The contract was that someone like me could basically start a company. In this case, you can come up with a up-to-date technology, web browsers and all other things that Netscape did. Everyone thought it was great.
Zoë Schiffer: He says that this is basically an unspoken agreement in which if you are an entrepreneur and create a company, and this company does really, really good and you earn a lot of money, and ultimately you give all this money, you are perceived as an impressive figure in society and you enjoy sterling reputation.
Marcs Andreats [Archival audio]: And then at the end of your career you will receive this giant pot of money, and then what you would do is to convey it with philanthropy. This washes all your sins, it will reclassify you from the type of suspicious business tycoon to virtuous philanthropist, and this is a bow, and everything is wonderful and wonderful.