Great things start as toys or fringe obsessions pursued by outsider weirdos
Tan argues that the most important companies start as toys or fringe obsessions pursued by outsider weirdos, citing the Homebrew Computer Club and PC revolution as patterns that repeat across Silicon Valley. ✦ AI generated
Garry Tan · a16z Podcast · 2026-08-12 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 5:31
“Where does that come from? Do you think there's any truth in it? Talk through that.”
The cool parts of the idea maze are like the weird fringe parts, actually. It's always like, uh, what is a toy? Like that's the pattern in Silicon Valley over and over again that bears repeating, right? The idea that you could have a computer on every desk in every home. Today is like, of course, that's what's come to pass. But the people who created that thing, they were fringe weirdo punks, actually. They were outsiders. Homebrew Computer Club was not where you were getting laid. You You just were like following this weird obsession that, you know, actually I want my own computer.
verbatim transcript · starts at 5:31
5:31actually. It's always like, uh, what is a toy? Like and that's the pattern in Silicon Valley over and over again that bears repeating, right? >> Yes. >> Like the idea that you could have a computer on every desk in every home. >> Yeah. >> Uh, today is like, of course, like that's what's come to pass. But >> the people who created that thing, they were fringe weirdo punks, actually.
5:52>> Yes. >> Uh >> They were outsiders. I mean, Homebrew Computer Club was not where you were getting laid. >> Yeah. That's right. >> [laughter] >> You You just were like following this weird obsession that, you know, actually I want my own computer. >> And I think Chris has said this, too. I think a good measure of how interesting the thing is is can you find the edge?
6:10>> Mhm. >> And for the most interesting things, you typically can't. Even if you find the edge of the conversation, you can't find the intellectual edge. Which I think is a very good sign. I mean, I had this growing up in the '80s, maybe you had this, too. There was sort of one way to be cool in grade school, and probably in high school, and maybe when you got to
6:26college, you kind of found your people. And now I think one of the miracles of being internet native generation is that people find their people much sooner. You find your people on Reddit, you find your people on, you know, X or Insta or whatever your network is. >> Oh, yeah. I mean, that's the coolest thing today. Like, there's probably a subreddit, there's probably um a part of X, like, you know, some part