AI Summary
5 min readThe most valuable signal in Silicon Valley isn’t a resume, a school, or a title—it’s who believes in you. That is the central thesis behind Cosign, a new product from a16z designed to make professional reputation more visible, durable, and liquid. In this episode, a16z general partner David Booth, partner Olivia Moore, and operating partner Josh Elman introduce Cosign, arguing that the industry’s core mechanism—trust and endorsement—has been trapped in private conversations, fleeting social posts, and the single, often-weak signal of a LinkedIn connection. Their goal is to build a directory of people and companies where the primary unit of value is not what you say about yourself, but what others publicly stake their own reputation on to say about you.
The Cosign as a New Credential
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of a16z Show
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Introducing Cosign: The Problem of Professional Reputation** - The episode opens with the core thesis: the most important skill is identifying things before the market, and the hosts (Josh Alman, Olivia Moore, David Booth) introduce Cosign, a new product from a16z focused on making professional reputation visible and durable.
- 2 (01:56) **The "Twitter vs. College" Credential Thought Experiment** - The conversation uses a story about Twitter being more valuable than a college education to argue that peer-to-peer credentials (e.g., being followed by Elon Musk) are now more impressive than institutional ones.
- 3 (04:30) **Three Granular Signals: Mentor, Co-Worker, and Watchlist** - The team details the three specific types of endorsements Cosign uses to replace the weak "connection" signal of other platforms.
- 4 (06:24) **The Information Asymmetry Problem in Hiring and Investing** - Olivia Moore explains that the most valuable data in Silicon Valley is "who has conviction in who," but this information is currently locked in private conversations, creating a massive inefficiency.
- 5 (07:32) **From a Newsletter to a Scalable Network** - Olivia shares her personal history of running a weekly startup job newsletter for seven years, which was a "less scalable version" of the Cosign network.
- 6 (09:11) **Cosign as a "Living Directory" of People and Companies** - David Booth explains that Cosign is designed to be a positive, celebratory space where people can "put their money where their mouth is" by publicly endorsing companies and individuals.
- 7 (10:40) **The "Do Business Through You" Network Effect** - David Booth articulates the core mechanism: the ability to invest "personal social capital" in someone by making an introduction, which lubricates the wheels of the entire ecosystem.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
a16z’s Erik Torenberg sits down with Josh Elman, Olivia Moore, and David Booth to introduce Cosign, a new product built around professional reputation and the people, companies, and products you’re willing to put your name behind.
They unpack a simple idea at the heart of Silicon Valley: some of the most valuable professional signals aren’t credentials, but who believes in you. From the mentor who shaped your career to the colleague you’d work with anywhere or the young builder you think everyone should be watching, Cosign is an attempt to make those signals more visible and durable.
They also discuss why human endorsements may become more valuable as AI makes outreach and information abundant, what existing professional networks get right and miss, and how making reputation more legible could help talented people get discovered earlier, find collaborators, and carry the work they’ve done behind the scenes into whatever they do next.
Resources:
Follow Josh Elman on X: https://x.com/joshelman
Follow Olivia Moore on X: https://x.com/omooretweets
Follow David Booth on X: https://x.com/david__booth
Follow Cosign: https://x.com/cosign_build
Read more about Cosign: https://www.a16z.news/how-silicon-valley-knows-its-people
Stay Updated:
Find a16z on YouTube: YouTube
Find a16z on X
Find a16z on LinkedIn
Listen to the a16z Show on Spotify
Listen to the a16z Show on Apple Podcasts
Follow our host: https://twitter.com/eriktorenberg
Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.