Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon
Dixon in 2022
Chris Dixon
Born	Template:Birth year and age
Nationality	American
Occupation	Venture capitalist, entrepreneur, author
Title	General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz
Known for	Co-founder of Hunch; leading crypto investments at Andreessen Horowitz; author of Read Write Own
Awards	Forbes Midas List (#10, 2025)
Website	[http://cdixon.org/ Official site]

Chris Dixon (born c. 1971/1972) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and author. He serves as a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), one of Silicon Valley's most prominent technology investment firms, where he leads the firm's cryptocurrency and Web3 investment practice. Before joining Andreessen Horowitz in 2012, Dixon co-founded and served as CEO of Hunch, a recommendation technology company that was acquired by eBay in 2011. He also co-founded SiteAdvisor, an internet security company acquired by McAfee in 2006. Over the course of his career, Dixon has become one of the technology industry's most prominent voices on the potential of blockchain technology, decentralized networks, and the future architecture of the internet. His book Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet, published in early 2024, reached The New York Times Best Sellers list. In 2025, Forbes ranked Dixon number 10 on its annual Midas List of top technology investors.

Early Life

Details about Chris Dixon's early childhood and family background are limited in publicly available sources. He was born approximately in 1971 or 1972 in the United States. Dixon developed an early interest in technology and computers, which would later inform both his entrepreneurial ventures and investment thesis.

Dixon attended Columbia University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. His undergraduate education at Columbia provided a foundation in the liberal arts and exposed him to the intellectual culture of New York City, a city where he would later base several of his startup ventures.

Education

Dixon earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University. He subsequently attended Harvard Business School, where he received a Master of Business Administration (MBA). His time at Harvard Business School helped shape his understanding of business strategy and venture finance, skills he would apply across multiple phases of his career as both a founder and an investor.

Career

SiteAdvisor

Dixon's first major entrepreneurial success came with the co-founding of SiteAdvisor, an internet security company that developed technology to warn users about potentially dangerous websites before they visited them. The company's browser plug-in rated websites based on safety assessments, helping consumers avoid malware, spam, and other online threats. SiteAdvisor attracted significant attention in the cybersecurity space and was acquired by McAfee, the major antivirus and computer security company, in 2006. The acquisition marked one of the notable cybersecurity deals of that period and established Dixon's reputation as a successful technology entrepreneur.

Hunch

Following the sale of SiteAdvisor, Dixon co-founded Hunch, a recommendation technology platform designed to help users make decisions by learning their preferences through a series of questions and data analysis. Dixon served as CEO of Hunch. The company developed a "taste graph" — a large-scale dataset mapping the relationships between people's preferences across various domains. This technology was intended to power personalized recommendations across the internet.

In November 2011, eBay acquired Hunch. The acquisition brought Dixon and the Hunch team into eBay, where the recommendation technology was integrated into eBay's commerce platform to improve product discovery and personalization for the company's large user base. Dixon's tenure at eBay following the acquisition was relatively brief, as he moved on to a career in venture capital.

Andreessen Horowitz

In November 2012, Dixon joined Andreessen Horowitz as a general partner, leaving eBay to take on the new role. At Andreessen Horowitz, Dixon brought his experience as a two-time founder and his deep knowledge of internet technology to bear on investment decisions across a broad range of sectors.

Early Investments

In his initial years at the firm, Dixon led or participated in investments across a diverse array of technology categories, reflecting the broad mandate of a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Among his notable early investments were:

• FiftyThree: In June 2013, Dixon led Andreessen Horowitz's investment in FiftyThree, the company behind the popular iPad drawing app Paper.

• Shapeways: In April 2013, Dixon led a $30 million investment in Shapeways, a 3D printing marketplace that allowed designers to create, sell, and ship custom products.

• Soylent: In October 2013, Dixon was involved in Andreessen Horowitz's investment in Soylent, the meal replacement startup that attracted significant public attention for its unconventional approach to nutrition.

• Oculus VR: In December 2013, Dixon participated in Andreessen Horowitz's investment in Oculus VR, the virtual reality company that raised $75 million to develop its Rift headset. Oculus was subsequently acquired by Facebook (now Meta Platforms) in 2014 for approximately $2 billion.

• Nootrobox: In December 2015, Dixon was involved in Andreessen Horowitz's investment in a nootropics startup focused on cognitive enhancement supplements.

Cryptocurrency and Web3

Dixon emerged as one of the earliest and most prominent institutional investors in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. In December 2013, he led Andreessen Horowitz's $25 million investment in Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange platform, which was described at the time as one of the largest bets on Bitcoin by a venture capital firm. Coinbase would later go public in April 2021 through a direct listing on Nasdaq at a valuation of approximately $86 billion, making the early Andreessen Horowitz investment one of the most profitable venture bets in the history of the cryptocurrency industry.

Over the following years, Dixon became the central figure in Andreessen Horowitz's expanding crypto investment practice. He helped establish a16z crypto, a dedicated fund within Andreessen Horowitz focused on cryptocurrency, blockchain, and Web3 companies. In April 2022, Forbes profiled Dixon's role in building Andreessen Horowitz's crypto portfolio, describing the scale and ambition of the firm's cryptocurrency investment thesis under his leadership. That same month, Fortune also covered Dixon's work at the intersection of venture capital and cryptocurrency.

Dixon's conviction in the crypto sector was tested during the significant market downturn of 2022, when cryptocurrency prices dropped sharply and several major crypto companies collapsed. In October 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported on the challenges facing Andreessen Horowitz's crypto investments amid the downturn, noting that the firm had made substantial bets at what turned out to be peak market valuations. Despite these setbacks, Dixon maintained his long-term thesis on the potential of blockchain technology and decentralized networks.

In October 2022, Dixon launched the a16z Crypto Startup School, an accelerator program designed to support early-stage Web3 founders with education, mentorship, and funding. The program reflected Dixon's belief that building the developer and founder ecosystem around Web3 technologies was essential for the sector's long-term success.

Dixon's more recent investment activities have included Andreessen Horowitz's investment in Kalshi, a regulated exchange for trading on prediction markets, reflecting the firm's interest in blockchain-adjacent financial infrastructure.

Thought Leadership and Media

Throughout his tenure at Andreessen Horowitz, Dixon has been an active writer and public commentator on technology trends. He maintains a personal blog at cdixon.org, where he has published essays on topics ranging from startup strategy and technology cycles to the architecture of the internet and the economics of decentralized networks.

Dixon has appeared on numerous podcasts and in media interviews discussing his investment thesis and views on technology. He has been a guest on the Capital Allocators podcast, where he discussed his approach to venture investing and the future of crypto and Web3.

In April 2025, Dixon appeared on Conversations with Tyler, the podcast hosted by economist Tyler Cowen, where he discussed blockchains, artificial intelligence, and the future of the internet. In the interview, Dixon articulated his view that the internet was at an inflection point in its evolution, with blockchain technology and AI converging to create new possibilities for ownership, creativity, and economic participation.

In May 2025, Dixon continued to develop his public thesis on the convergence of AI and crypto, arguing at a16z Live that the intersection of these two technologies would redefine economic models for creative professionals and content creators. He has also contributed to a16z crypto's published research on stablecoins and their potential to reshape global finance.

Read Write Own

In January 2024, Dixon published his book Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet. The book presented Dixon's framework for understanding the internet's evolution in three phases: the "read" era of early, static web pages; the "read-write" era of social media and user-generated content; and the emerging "read-write-own" era enabled by blockchain technology, in which users would have direct ownership of digital content, data, and assets. The book reached The New York Times Best Sellers list for combined print and e-book nonfiction in February 2024.

The book served as both a synthesis of Dixon's accumulated thinking about internet architecture and a public-facing argument for the blockchain-based vision of the web's future. It drew on his experience as an entrepreneur and investor to frame decentralized technologies not merely as financial instruments but as foundational infrastructure for a more open and user-empowering internet.

Recognition

Dixon has received significant recognition within the technology and investment communities for his career as both an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist. His early investment in Coinbase and his role in building Andreessen Horowitz's crypto portfolio have been among the factors cited in his placement on various investor rankings.

Forbes has included Dixon on its annual Midas List, which ranks the top technology investors in the world. In 2022, Forbes profiled Dixon as a leading figure in crypto venture capital in connection with his Midas List ranking. In 2025, Dixon was ranked number 10 on the Midas List, reflecting the continued significance of his portfolio and investment track record.

Columbia University has recognized Dixon as a notable alumnus through its entrepreneurship program.

Dixon's book Read Write Own reaching The New York Times Best Sellers list in 2024 represented a form of mainstream recognition for his ideas about the future of the internet and blockchain technology, extending his influence beyond the venture capital and technology startup communities to a broader public audience.

Legacy

Chris Dixon's career spans two distinct but related phases: his work as a technology entrepreneur in the 2000s and his subsequent career as a venture capitalist from 2012 onward. His trajectory from founding companies like SiteAdvisor and Hunch to leading one of the largest dedicated cryptocurrency investment practices in venture capital reflects broader shifts in the technology industry during this period.

Dixon's most significant impact on the technology landscape has been his role in legitimizing cryptocurrency and blockchain as a major category for institutional venture capital investment. His 2013 investment in Coinbase was among the first high-profile bets by a top-tier venture firm on a cryptocurrency company, and it helped signal to the broader investment community that digital assets and blockchain infrastructure were areas of serious commercial potential. The subsequent growth of a16z crypto into a multi-billion-dollar investment practice under Dixon's leadership made Andreessen Horowitz one of the defining institutional investors in the Web3 space.

Dixon's intellectual contributions, particularly through his blog posts, public talks, and the book Read Write Own, have shaped the discourse around internet architecture, digital ownership, and the role of decentralized networks. His framework of "read, write, own" has become a commonly referenced shorthand in discussions about the evolution of the internet.

His career has also attracted scrutiny, particularly during the 2022 crypto downturn when questions arose about the timing and scale of Andreessen Horowitz's cryptocurrency investments. The performance of these investments through market cycles remains a subject of ongoing evaluation.

As of 2025, Dixon continues to serve as general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and remains a prominent figure in discussions about the intersection of artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and the future of the internet.