Scott Kupor

Background

Scott Aaron Kupor (born October 6, 1971) is an American business executive who served as Managing Partner of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) from the firm’s founding in 2009 until 2025, when he was confirmed as Director of the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) ¹².

Kupor graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Public Policy (Phi Beta Kappa, with honors and distinction) and earned a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School with distinction ¹³. He is a member of the California State Bar ³.

His career began in investment banking at Credit Suisse First Boston and Lehman Brothers, where he represented software companies in financing and M&A transactions ³. In 1999, he joined Loudcloud, a cloud computing firm co-founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz ¹. He remained through the company’s transformation into Opsware in 2002, holding executive roles including Senior Vice President of Global Field Operations, VP of Financial Planning, and VP of Corporate Development ³. After Hewlett-Packard acquired Opsware in 2007, Kupor served as Vice President and General Manager of Software-as-a-Service at HP ¹³.

Kupor was the first employee hired by Andreessen Horowitz in 2009, and was formally named partner in June 2010 ¹. He also served as the firm’s Chief Operating Officer. Under his management, a16z grew from three employees to over 600 and from $300 million in assets under management to over $30 billion ¹²³. He served as Chairman of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) from May 2017 to May 2018 ¹.

Kupor authored the Wall Street Journal bestselling book Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It (2019) ⁴. He also serves as a Lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business ⁵.

In December 2024, President-elect Donald Trump nominated Kupor as Director of OPM. He was confirmed by the Senate on July 9, 2025 ¹². As part of the confirmation process, he resigned from 32 a16z fund positions and stepped down from several portfolio company boards, including Formation Bio, Talkiatry, Pearl Health, and Foursquare ⁶.

Stated Thesis

(Self-reported: These represent what Kupor says publicly about his approach. See Inferred Thesis for analysis of actual investment behavior.)

Kupor’s publicly stated investment philosophy, drawn primarily from Secrets of Sand Hill Road and interviews:

• Aspirin over vitamins: He uses the metaphor that VCs want to fund “aspirins” — products that solve urgent problems — rather than “vitamins” — nice-to-have products with unclear impact. He writes: “Products that often have massive advantages over the status quo are aspirins; VCs want to fund aspirins” ⁷⁴.

• The idea maze: He emphasizes that “it’s the process of the idea maze that is the better predictor of the founder’s success than the actual product idea itself” ⁷.

• Strong opinions, weakly held: He says VCs “like founders who have strong opinions but ones that are weakly held” ⁷.

• Storytelling ability: He notes that “the skill you need most when raising venture capital is the ability to tell a compelling story” ⁴.

• Healthcare and bio focus: In his investing role at a16z, Kupor focused on growth-stage companies in the bio and healthcare industries ³⁸.

• VC as customer service: He has described venture capital as “simply a customer service business,” emphasizing that VCs serve both founders and LPs ⁹.

Inferred Thesis

Based on 13 verified board-level investments below, Kupor’s personal portfolio at a16z skews heavily toward healthcare and enterprise software:

Stage focus: Predominantly growth-stage (Series B and later). His investment parameters were $10M-$60M with a $20M target ¹⁰. This reflects a16z’s growth-stage focus rather than early-stage seed investing.

Sector concentration (of 13 verified investments): - Healthcare/bio: 6 companies (46%) — Formation Bio, Talkiatry, Pearl Health, Headway, Cedar, Infinitus ³⁶⁸ - Enterprise software: 5 companies (38%) — SnapLogic, Foursquare, Labster, Ultima, Tanium ³⁶ - Consumer: 1 company (8%) — Foursquare (dual-classified) ⁶ - Other: 1 company (8%) — Labster (edtech/enterprise) ³

Notable pattern: Kupor’s investment focus evolved toward healthcare and bio over time, with his most recent board positions clustered in health-related companies (Formation Bio, Talkiatry, Pearl Health, Headway, Cedar) ³⁶⁸. This represents a meaningful specialization within a16z’s broader multi-sector platform.

Geography: Primarily US-based companies, consistent with a16z’s US-centric portfolio.

Limitation: Kupor’s role as Managing Partner means many of his contributions were operational and strategic rather than deal-leading. The 13 board seats represent companies where he had direct investment involvement, but he influenced a16z’s broader portfolio of hundreds of companies in an institutional capacity.

Portfolio

This table represents 11 of Kupor’s known board-level investments at a16z. Investment years are approximate based on available data. As Managing Partner, Kupor influenced far more investments in an institutional capacity. Several board seats (Formation Bio, Talkiatry, Pearl Health, Foursquare) were resigned in 2025 for his government appointment.

In Their Own Words

“Products that often have massive advantages over the status quo are aspirins; VCs want to fund aspirins.” — Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road (2019) ⁷

“It’s the process of the idea maze that is the better predictor of the founder’s success than the actual product idea itself.” — Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road (2019) ⁷

“You have to be partly delusional to start a company given the prospects of success and the need to keep pushing forward.” — Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road (2019) ⁷

“Live to fight another day is another great startup mantra to always keep front and center in your mind.” — Scott Kupor, Secrets of Sand Hill Road (2019) ⁷

“You have to find ways to rebuild trust… by treating with respect the people who are walking out the door.” — Scott Kupor, Fortune interview (September 2025), on his OPM role ²

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found from portfolio company founders about Kupor specifically.

Note: Ben Horowitz (a16z co-founder/colleague) has praised Kupor as “the best executive that we’ve worked with” ², and colleagues have described him as “a salt of the earth guy” ² — but these are from co-founders and colleagues, not portfolio founders.

Sources