Chris Dixon’s Career in Cryptocurrency and Entrepreneurship

Chris Dixon is a general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, a longtime angel investor, an avid entrepreneur, and an enthusiastic cryptocurrency evangelist. Since launching a16z crypto—the crypto fund for Andreessen Horowitz—in 2018, Chris has overseen investments in more than forty-five companies, including Coinbase and Uniswap.

Chris held the first spot on the Midas List of 2022 (a ranked compendium of influential investors compiled each year by Forbes) and has appeared in profiles by The New York Times, Fortune, and other major media outlets.

Chris Dixon has been at the forefront of technological innovation for decades. Here are just a few facts about him to keep in mind:

1. 1. Chris is an angel investor. Since the early 2010s, Chris has been one of the world’s top crypto investors. He made such an impact on his own as an angel investor that Marc Andreessen, the cofounder of acclaimed venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, brought him on board to distribute their crypto fund.
2. 2. Chris cofounded multiple companies. In the early to mid-2000s, Chris cofounded both the online security service SiteAdvisor (acquired by McAfee) and the recommendations engine Hunch (acquired by eBay). He’s also one of the cofounders of the seed investment fund Founder Collective.
3. 3. Chris has an Ivy League education. Chris studied philosophy at Columbia University before earning an MBA at Harvard Business School. To this day, he loves to engage in philosophical speculation as much as conversations about the ins and outs of crypto investment.
4. 4. Chris loves new technologies. For as long as he can remember, Chris has always wanted to stay on top of the next big thing. From video games to VR, he’s always kept up with the latest and greatest interactive technologies. That’s just part of the reason he’s been so intrigued by blockchain innovations like Bitcoin, the Ethereum cryptocurrency exchange, NFTs, and Web3.
5. 5. Chris is a Web3 evangelist. Chris believes Web3 and crypto are the future and has extolled their virtues in magazine profiles and podcast interviews. Besides running one of the world’s premier venture funds for Web3 businesses, he also helped found the Crypto Startup School to help entrepreneurs get their startups off the ground.

Chris Dixon covers Web3 and cryptocurrency from a host of different angles. These are just five major topics you can expect him to discuss in his class:

1. 1. The advantages of innovation: Chris has always prized the value of innovation, and he believes everyday entrepreneurs can help pave the path forward for crypto and Web3. “Today, an important question to ask when you think about VR, AI, and crypto is, are they going to open up new startup opportunities?” he says. “You know, are you gonna have a new set of companies kind of rise up and take advantage of this?” Learn how you could be a part of this next wave of entrepreneurship in his class.
2. 2. The arrival of Web3: From the Industrial Revolution to the advent of the internet, new technologies have changed the entire face of the world. Chris believes Web3 and crypto have the power to do the same. “I think of Web 3.0 as a movement,” Chris says. “It’s a movement of mostly folks who are technical and interested in the architecture of the internet, and how the power and control and money on the internet is distributed.” Learn more about how he sees this movement shaping up.
3. 3. The importance of incentivization: Chris believes the internet can return to its decentralized and disruptive roots with the correct incentive structure. “With the right incentives, you can make really popular infrastructure,” he says, “new infrastructure that gains traction.”
4. 4. The power of disruption: Over the last several decades, the internet has become more consolidated in the hands of fewer and fewer companies and investors. “Web3 and crypto are really the only kinda countervailing force to what are otherwise very strong centralizing forces in the technology world,” Chris says. Learn how he thinks crypto and Web3 can help shake up the status quo in his class.
5. 5. The value of decentralization: Chris thinks crypto, decentralized finance (DeFi), and Web3 technologies can put more power in everyday people’s hands. “That's one of the exciting things with DeFi,” he says. “I think it has a lot of promise to really kind of push money back to the consumers and away from these central intermediaries.”

To learn more about investing in future trends, building a business strategy, and upping your general business savvy, consider the following classes:

1. 1. Bob Iger on business strategy and leadership: Bob Iger’s tenure as the CEO of the Walt Disney Company saw some of the entertainment company’s biggest acquisitions and successes. Watch Bob’s class to learn how he fuses curiosity, creativity, and candor to grow a business.
2. 2. Howard Shultz on business leadership: Howard Schultz didn’t have an MBA or an Ivy League degree, but he had a dream of building an enduring company. In Howard’s class, the Starbucks CEO shares lessons from nearly forty years of leading one of the world’s top brands, including how to face self-doubt when starting your journey as an entrepreneur.
3. 3. Sara Blakely on self-made entrepreneurship: Sara Blakely had no fashion, retail, or business leadership experience when she invented Spanx, her successful brand of women’s undergarments, in the 1990s. All she had was $5,000 and an idea. Watch Sara’s class to learn more about her entrepreneurial journey, as well as her tips for marketing a product and hiring a team.

All investments and investment strategies entail inherent risks and introduce the potential for financial loss or the depreciation of assets. The information in this article is for educational, informational, and referential purposes only. Consult a professional investment advisor before making any financial commitments.

From the rise of blockchain technology to the dawning of NFTs and Web3, the world of cryptocurrency has undergone dynamic changes and continues to innovate. With the MasterClass Annual Membership, get access to exclusive lessons from Hunch cofounder Chris Dixon, Binance cofounder Changpeng Zhao, Coinbase’s Emilie Choi, and economist Paul Krugman to learn about the ever-changing landscape of cryptocurrency and its place in the global economy.