Andreessen Horowitz, a high technology venture capital firm, has an immediate opening for a Crypto Policy Counsel.
Andreessen Horowitz is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm with $10 billion under management. Focused on investing in software eating the world, the firm partners with entrepreneurs in their company building at all stages -- from seed to late-stage -- in the biology, consumer, crypto, and enterprise industries. The firm invests in crypto principally through a dedicated $350 million venture fund.
Innovations in new technologies invariably precede innovations in laws and regulations. As a result, many of the firm’s portfolio companies and projects will be regulated, at least temporarily, by laws that were written before such new technologies existed. This is particularly true of crypto. In fact, we believe crypto is one area where lawyers can have an outsize impact on business and strategy.
In this role you will work with General Partners, Managing Partner, and General Counsel to ensure that the firm is fully up-to-speed on legal and regulatory developments in the crypto space that may impact the success of our investments. You will also provide strategic advice to executives in our portfolio, and engage with policymakers and regulators as appropriate.
The majority of the fund’s crypto investments to date have been based in the United States and Europe. But given the global nature of crypto, the Crypto Policy Counsel will also follow developments abroad and cover a wide range of regulatory regimes -- privacy, consumer protection, anti-money laundering, securities, licensing, lending, and more. Given this breadth it is unlikely you will have deep prior knowledge in more than a handful of relevant fields and instead will be expected to develop an agile and pragmatic framework to assess risks and opportunities.
What you will do:
- Serve as a subject matter expert on crypto legal and regulatory matters: Stay on top of quickly evolving legal and regulatory developments in this space. In the last year alone this would have included, for example: public and private litigation; legislative activity in places ranging from the US (including states) to the EU and Asia; guidance from bodies such as the Treasury, CFTC, SEC, FATF, FCA, MAS, and more.
- Provide strategic advice related to investments: Understand the investment priorities of the fund to proactively identify and analyze the current regulatory risks and propose how best to mitigate those risks.
- Manage network of external relationships: Cultivate relationships with trade, legal, and related organizations that may further the firm’s understanding of the policy landscape and seek opportunities to influence the dialogue, e.g. amicus briefs, notice and comment proceedings, hosting roundtables, etc.
- Engagement with portfolio companies: Work directly with the General Partners to engage with portfolio companies and projects to help them understand and navigate relevant regulatory and compliance issues.
Note that the scope of this role does not encompass the firm’s own compliance obligations as a registered investment adviser. This is also not a lobbying function, nor will this person manage political contributions on behalf of the firm.
Who you are:
- Passion for crypto and a demonstrated understanding of the industry and the evolving regulatory and compliance landscape
- JD with 5+ years of experience where you have engaged directly on issues posed by emerging technologies
- Ability to communicate in non-legal jargon and think creatively in a space where some of the rules have yet to be written
- Ability to work closely and strategize with the firm’s portfolio company executives to help them navigate a complex regulatory environment