a16z crypto turns to Web’s old guard with appointment of Jason Rosenthal as operating partner

Venture investor firm a16z crypto is calling in the grownups.

The firm has hired a veteran who dates back to the early Web 1.0 days at Netscape to help some of its newer Web 3.0 folks be “the best version of their professional selves.”

Jason Rosenthal, who most recently ran most of Google’s consumer-facing subscription services, was named an operating partner to provide leadership guidance across its portfolio. 

“Founders often need guidance from someone who’s personally navigated many of the abstract, harder-to-define, but nevertheless critical obstacles that inevitably arise in any startup,” a16z crypto managing partner Chris Dixon said in a blog post, noting that Rosenthal had spend more than 25 years as an entrepreneur and executive.

Rosenthal has longstanding ties to a16z, with founder Ben Horowitz having trained him has a project manager at Netscape in the 1990s. He was then hired by Horowitz and Marc Andreessen as the first Loudcloud employee before he went on to become the CEO of Ning in the early days of social.

“We’ve staffed the a16z crypto operating team with experts in functions such as go-to-market, recruiting, and regulatory, to provide guidance to our founders in those areas,” Dixon said. “We also know that founders often need guidance from someone who’s personally navigated many of the abstract, harder-to-define, but nevertheless critical obstacles that inevitably arise in any startup.”

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