# Erik Torenberg

> Erik Torenberg is a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where he joined in April 2025 after a16z acquired his media network Turpentine. A serial founder and investor, he was a first employee at Product Hunt, co-founded Village Global (a $100M VC fund backed by Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg), founded On Deck (a fellowship network for founders), and built Turpentine into a leading tech media network before its acquisition. Known for his wide-ranging intellectual curiosity spanning technology, culture, politics, and philosophy, he now leads a16z's media and ecosystem efforts including the New Media Fellowship and the live news venture MTS.

- **Role:** General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
- **Organizations:** Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Turpentine, Village Global, On Deck, Product Hunt, Rapt.fm, Chatham House (political exchange group)
- **From:** Cresskill, New Jersey, USA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BS Economics (also studied English Literature), University of Michigan, Kauffman Fellow, Kauffman Fellows Program
- **Known for:** First employee at Product Hunt, helping scale it into a major product discovery platform, Co-founded Village Global with $100M+ fund backed by Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg as LPs, Founded On Deck, growing it into a fellowship network supporting thousands of founders globally

## Career timeline

- **2012** — Co-founded Rapt.fm, an online freestyle rap battle platform, winning University of Michigan Startup Weekend
- **2013** — Joined Product Hunt as first employee, helping scale the community from early stage
- **2016** — Left Product Hunt after helping grow it to a major platform; began investing in startups
- **2017** — Co-founded Village Global with Ben Casnocha, raising $50M+ fund with LPs including Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg
- **2019** — Founded On Deck, a fellowship network to accelerate founders and operators globally
- **2022** — Stepped back from CEO role at On Deck to Chairman; On Deck raised $20M Series A
- **2023** — Founded Turpentine media network covering tech, business, and culture through podcasts and newsletters
- **2024** — Founded Chatham House, a left-right political exchange group focused on private trusted conversation
- **2025-04** — Joined Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as General Partner after a16z acquired Turpentine
- **2025** — Launched a16z New Media Fellowship; 2,000+ applications, 65 fellows from OpenAI, Google, Apple, Spotify
- **2026** — Launched MTS (Monitoring the Situation), an a16z-backed live news venture on X with Theo Jaffee

## Achievements

- First employee at Product Hunt, helping scale it into a major product discovery platform
- Co-founded Village Global with $100M+ fund backed by Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg as LPs
- Founded On Deck, growing it into a fellowship network supporting thousands of founders globally
- Built Turpentine into a leading tech/ideas media network before its acquisition by a16z
- Named General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) in April 2025
- Launched a16z New Media Fellowship with 2,000+ applicants and 65 fellows from top tech companies
- Won University of Michigan Startup Weekend in 2012 with Rapt.fm
- Portfolio includes Scale AI, Figma, Applied Intuition, Flexport, Rappi, and 40+ other companies
- Kauffman Fellow
- Launched MTS live news venture on X in 2026

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Published essay 'The Internet is Real Life' arguing the internet has become real life, not an intrusion on it - covered by Fortune
- **2026-04** — Launched second cohort of a16z New Media Fellowship (April-June 2026)
- **2026-01** — Launched MTS (Monitoring the Situation), a live cable-style news venture on X with co-host Theo Jaffee
- **2025-04** — Joined Andreessen Horowitz as General Partner after a16z acquired Turpentine
- **2025-02** — Published '35 bits of advice for my younger self' on Substack
- **2025-01** — Launched first cohort of a16z New Media Fellowship with 2,000+ applications, selecting 65 fellows

## Links

- Website: https://eriktorenberg.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eriktorenberg/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/eriktorenberg
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eriktorenber/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erik.torenberg/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/erik-torenberg
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-23