# Brian Roberts

> Brian Roberts is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where he works across the American Dynamism and AI Apps funds. Known as BK to those in the know, Roberts is a serial CFO turned investor who took Lyft public at a $24 billion valuation, helped Splunk get acquired by Cisco for $28 billion, and was OpenSea's first CFO during the NFT boom. With 30+ years spanning investment banking at Evercore, corporate development at Microsoft and Walmart, and C-suite finance roles at some of tech's most pivotal companies, he joined a16z in October 2024 to bring an operator's lens to early and growth-stage investments in enterprise software, fintech, and America's strategic tech infrastructure.

- **Role:** General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
- **Organizations:** Andreessen Horowitz, a16z, Lyft, Splunk, OpenSea, Microsoft, Walmart Global eCommerce, Evercore, Inktomi
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.A., University of California, Berkeley, M.B.A., Harvard Business School
- **Known for:** Took Lyft public at $24.3 billion valuation in 2019, Raised $7+ billion in capital for Lyft and scaled revenue from <$50M to $3.5B+, Served as OpenSea's first-ever CFO during the NFT marketplace's peak

## Career timeline

- **early career** — Worked at Inktomi Corporation, led corporate development
- **early 2000s** — Joined investment banking, ultimately spending 12+ years at Evercore as Senior Managing Director
- **2001-2005** — Vice President of Corporate Development at Microsoft, led global M&A
- **2011-2014** — SVP Business Development & Strategy at Walmart Global eCommerce
- **2014** — Joined Lyft as Chief Financial Officer
- **2019** — Took Lyft public at $24.3 billion valuation; helped scale revenue from <$50M to $3.5B+, raised $7B+
- **2021** — Left Lyft after 7 years; became first CFO at OpenSea during NFT marketplace peak
- **2022** — Departed OpenSea after ~10 months, stayed on as advisor
- **2023** — Joined Splunk as Chief Financial Officer; helped more than double free cash flow to $1B, grow ARR to $4.2B
- **2024-03** — Cisco completed $28 billion acquisition of Splunk - largest acquisition in Cisco history
- **2024-10** — Joined Andreessen Horowitz as General Partner, working across American Dynamism and AI Apps funds

## Achievements

- Took Lyft public at $24.3 billion valuation in 2019
- Raised $7+ billion in capital for Lyft and scaled revenue from <$50M to $3.5B+
- Served as OpenSea's first-ever CFO during the NFT marketplace's peak
- As Splunk CFO, helped more than double free cash flow to $1 billion and grow ARR to $4.2 billion
- Played integral role in Cisco's $28 billion acquisition of Splunk - Cisco's largest-ever deal
- Led global M&A as VP of Corporate Development at Microsoft
- 12+ years as Senior Managing Director in investment banking at Evercore
- Joined a16z as General Partner in October 2024 to work across American Dynamism and AI Apps funds
- Led early investments in enterprise AI companies including Petual, Stuut, Hilbert, Lio, and Raspberry AI

## Latest updates

- **2025-04** — Participated in a16z American Dynamism Summit 2025
- **2025-02** — Featured in a16z fintech newsletter on voice AI in banking
- **2025-01** — Led a16z investment in Stuut, accounts receivable automation platform
- **2024-12** — Led a16z investment in Petual, AI platform for internal audit and compliance
- **2024-10** — Announced as General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz alongside Andy McCall

## Links

- Website: https://a16z.com/brian-roberts/
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/-brian-roberts
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/BKRoberts

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/brian-roberts
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-09