New York’s Chris Dixon, who helped create seed stage fund Founder Collective and built and sold his companies SiteAdvisor and Hunch, is now heading to Silicon Valley, where he’ll become the seventh general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. The departure of Dixon, who was leading up eBay’s New York tech office after Hunch’s acquisition by eBay, is a bit of a blow to the local tech scene, which has enjoyed his investments, advice and cheerleading.
Dixon said in his personal blog that he’ll be specializing in consumer internet startups, but will be open to any interesting technologies. And while he’ll be based in California, he’ll still be investing in a lot of New York startups. AllThingsD first reported this past weekend that Dixon was in talks to join Andreessen.
Dixon framed his decision as less of a departure and more of a chance to help bring Andreessen Horowitz to New York. He told Pando Daily he will keep his apartment in New York. “You can think of it as I’m abandoning New York or I’m beginning the process of bringing the best venture firm in the country back to New York. I like to think of it as the latter,” he said.
While Dixon has been an active investor in New York startups, his portfolio was already leaning toward California, with about 2/3 of his companies located there. He’s had a pretty good eye on investment opportunities, backing companies like Skype, Foursquare, Kickstarter, Stripe and Pinterest.
I’m sure we’ll see Chris in New York all the time. As is increasingly the case, the lines are blurring a little between New York and Silicon Valley with people jetting back and forth often and setting up offices in both places. Chris will give Andreessen another smart founder, who knows how to spot and nurture talent. And he has plenty of contacts on the East Coast, which will help Andreessen Horowitz get in on even more big deals.
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