Sarah Wang

I am excited to announce that we have promoted Sarah Wang to General Partner on the Growth investing team. When we started the Growth Fund in 2019, we set out to back founders executing on unusually big visions for emerging categories. Over the last three years, we’ve backed companies that are just at the point of finding product-market fit all the way through to investing at IPO, and we announced our latest, $5B Growth fund last week to continue to do so. The opportunity to partner with growth stage companies has never been greater, and we now have over $10B in assets under management¹ across three Growth funds to invest in enterprise, fintech, consumer internet, crypto/web3, and bio+healthcare companies. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have Sarah play an even larger role in this on the Growth team. 

When Sarah joined my team at a16z three years ago, she quickly made an impression, and has already worked with some of our most exciting enterprise companies, including leading the firm’s investments in Sourcegraph and Crossbeam. She has also been a true thought leader in the enterprise space, as seen here and here. In her role as General Partner, Sarah will be focused on leading new investments and partnering closely with founders across the enterprise technology space. 

Sarah came to a16z from TA Associates where she invested in and partnered with founders of growth stage companies, and served on the board of ZoomInfo/DiscoverOrg. She got her first taste of venture at DCM Ventures and Radicle Impact and started her career at BCG and Morgan Stanley. After I started at a16z and set out to build the Growth team, three separate people recommended Sarah unwaveringly and offered an introduction. As I got to know her, I understood why. 

If early-stage venture investing is about asking “What if it works?”, later-stage venture investing is asking the question “Is it working?” At the Growth stage of a company, many investors can answer the “is it working” question, but pairing it with the ability to see the value of “what if it works” is what makes for great outcomes. Sarah is as good as it gets at that. 

We often say there are only 3-5 important questions that matter in deciding whether we should make an investment. Sarah is incredibly talented at framing those questions, relentlessly seeking answers, and interpreting what she finds to make the right judgments. To me, being a General Partner means, “would I trust this person with my money to invest?” The answer for Sarah is a resounding yes. 

She’s also a world-class partner and board member to founders. She is diligent, rigorous, and tough, but she combines that with an optimistic and positive personality that carries over to how she sees partnering with great companies. When we hired Sarah three years ago, I spoke to Henry Schuck, the CEO of ZoomInfo, along with one of her fellow board members. Those reference checks were so positive that I worried both were going to try and swoop in to recruit Sarah themselves! 

Please join me in welcoming Sarah to this new role. I’m proud to call her my partner. 

¹ Assets under management is defined as committed capital across a16z growth fund families. For regulatory assets under management, see adviserinfo.sec.gov