Katie Haun’s decision to depart from Andreessen Horowitz — one of tech’s most prestigious venture firms — to launch her own fund might have initially puzzled some industry outsiders. Why leave a powerhouse like a16z, where Haun co-led a successful crypto team? But for Haun, the choice crystallized after deep reflection on her role in the industry.
“One of the things I learned in the last four years at the firm is, I’m actually an entrepreneur,” Haun told Fortune at the time.
‘A Heat-Seeking Missile’
The move exemplified Haun’s unconventional path in tech investing. Her entry into cryptocurrency came not through engineering or finance but through criminal investigation. In 2013, as a federal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, she received an assignment to investigate bitcoin.
While leading investigations into high-profile cases like the Mt. Gox hack and corrupt agents on the Silk Road task force, Haun developed unique insights into cryptocurrency’s potential. Rather than seeing only its misuse in criminal enterprises, she recognized the technology’s fundamental value.
“The more I did some diligence and looked into it, I found that some of the myths I’d been hearing were just not true,” Haun explained when defending crypto’s viability in a debate with economist Paul Krugman.
“There are three common ones: First, crypto is anonymous and only used by criminals. Second, aside from speculation, there’s no use for cryptocurrency. And third, crypto is just about currency.”
The timing of her independent venture, launched in early 2022, wasn’t without challenges, coinciding with a bear market tied to the collapse of FTX later that year. But Haun maintained her characteristic equanimity.
“The nature of running a crypto fund is taking on risk,” she said, drawing parallels to her experience prosecuting complex cases where uncertainty was constant.
Reimagining the Future of the Internet
Haun believes in the long-term potential of the technology. When discussing the future of Web3 in an interview with Ezra Klein of The New York Times, Haun emphasized the technology’s potential to redistribute power away from tech giants.
“What we haven’t even talked about is there are decentralized social platforms being built on top of crypto protocols,” she said. “The notion is that users have the power to say what the rules of the road are going to be. And they’re going to be able to decide whether they want to sell their data or whether they want to share their data.
“The internet should have gotten to be a prettier place, and it’s gotten to be an uglier place, just from an aesthetic point of view, because of Web 2 and the clicks and the advertising,” she continued. “Everyone’s posting all aspects of their life online. And these platforms are collecting vast amounts of data, as we know. And so we are all the content creators. We’re just creating it all for free. And I think Web3 could change this. What would a world look like where users actually owned their data, where users had a choice?”
Her approach to the space is shaped by a nuanced understanding of both technology’s potential and its limitations. “I think it’s important not to judge the current state of innovation with the end state of innovation,” she said.
“Right now, what you have with decentralized technologies is some janky consumer experiences.”
Yet she sees this as temporary. “People say they prefer less power aggregated. People say they value their privacy. But when push comes to shove, people go to where it costs less and where it’s convenient,” she explained. “And I think convenience is paramount.”
This pragmatism extends to her view of institutional structures in the digital age. When discussing the tension between decentralization and traditional institutions, Haun pushed back against the notion that removing intermediaries necessarily leads to chaos. She pointed to emerging models of collective funding and community governance as examples of how decentralized systems can support substantial projects.
“One of the things that we’re starting to see with crypto is democratizing participation and economic ownership. And that’s at the very heart of crypto,” she emphasized.
However, Haun maintains a balanced perspective about the technology’s impact. “Any technology that I’m aware of has definite pros and cons,” she acknowledged. “I think [crypto] is a technology. I think that the societal benefits that I see with crypto are outweighing right now — vastly outweighing, if it reaches its full potential — some of the downsides. But it’s very important to have the conversation around those downsides.
“I do think it’s a step-level improvement upon the current system,” she added. “And when we talk about the current tech giants gaining more and more power, that’s only continuing. We have open protocols — TCP/IP, HTTP, all of the protocols that anyone can build on — but it’s companies, tech companies, that are building on top of them. And they’ve benefited a lot from the open source and the open nature of those open internet protocols. At first it seemed great, because everyone relied on what they thought were free platforms. But they’re not free. We know that now.”
Building for the Long Term
For Haun, leaving a16z was about embarking on a new journey.
“Like many things in my career, I think things are either a ‘hell yes’ or ‘no,'” she told Fortune. “When I decided to spin off it was a ‘hell yes.’ Have I had moments in the last few weeks where I’m like, ‘What am I doing?’ Yes, absolutely. And yet, I’m super committed to it. And I know it was the right decision.”
