By Sarah McBride
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Chris Dixon, the
entrepreneur behind recommendation service Hunch and
web-security company SiteAdvisor, will join Silicon Valley
venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz in January, he and the
firm said.
Dixon, 40, has substantial experience with extremely young
companies in the “angel” phase. His angel investments have
included online phone-service Skype, acquired by eBay ;
crowdfunding site Kickstarter, and online bulletin board-service
Pinterest.
“He’s built a real reputation among the entrepreneurs as one
of the most helpful guys, the one everyone wants,” as a backer,
said Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen in an
interview.
In addition to his personal investments, Dixon serves as an
advisor to Founder Collective, a $40 million early-stage venture
fund founded in 2009 by a handful of mainly East-Coast based
entrepreneurs, including Dixon. He will still support those
investments, Dixon said.
Dixon said he will now be focusing on companies farther
along the growth track as well as companies at the very earliest
stages.
The Andreessen team has known Dixon for several years,
co-investing with him on a handful of deals such as Pinterest.
Separately, Marc Andreessen sits on the board of eBay, which
bought Dixon’s Hunch last year.
The Andreessen position will not be Dixon’s first at an
established venture firm. He previously worked at Bessemer
Venture Partners, a firm whose investments have included Skype,
business-networking site LinkedIn, and office supplies
retailer Staples.
Hiring Dixon brings the total number of general partners at
Andreessen, one of the Valley’s fastest-growing venture
businesses, to seven. The firm was created by Andreessen and
software company Opsware co-founder Ben Horowitz in 2009 with a
$300 million fund. Earlier this year, it closed on a $1.5
billion fund.
In September, the firm said former Washington, D.C. Mayor
Adrian Fenty would join the firm as a special advisor, joining
former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers in that role.
Dixon said he plans to move to the San Francisco Bay Area
for his new job, but will continue to invest heavily in New York
for Andreessen Horowitz. He also will retain an East Coast
escape hatch. “I’m going to keep my apartment in New York,” he
said.
AllThingsD.com previously reported that Andreessen and Dixon
were in talks.
