# Mario Linares

> Mario Linares is a Partner on the Executive Talent team at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), where he works directly with seed-stage founders across Enterprise, Fintech, Consumer, and American Dynamism portfolio companies to recruit and place senior leadership. A former professional chef turned Silicon Valley recruiter, Linares spent years inside the talent organizations of Cisco, Nicira, VMware, and Google/YouTube before joining a16z - where he now brings the same precision he once applied to perfecting a dish to the art of matching world-class executives with breakout companies.

- **Role:** Partner, Executive Talent at Andreessen Horowitz
- **Organizations:** Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor's in Clinical Psychology, San Jose State University
- **Known for:** Partner-level role at Andreessen Horowitz, one of the world's most influential venture capital firms, Built executive talent infrastructure at Nicira, which was acquired by VMware, Helped YouTube scale its executive recruiting function as an in-house recruiter at Google

## Career timeline

- **Early career** — Senior Executive Recruiter at Cisco
- **Mid career** — Director of Staffing at Nicira (a16z-backed networking startup)
- **Post-Nicira** — Executive Recruiting Director at VMware (which acquired Nicira)
- **Google era** — Senior Executive Recruiter at Google, key member of YouTube's in-house executive recruiting team
- **Aviatrix** — Head of Talent Acquisition at Aviatrix, overseeing global hiring and organizational design
- **Present** — Partner, Executive Talent at Andreessen Horowitz - focused on seed-stage founders in Enterprise, Fintech, Consumer, and American Dynamism

## Achievements

- Partner-level role at Andreessen Horowitz, one of the world's most influential venture capital firms
- Built executive talent infrastructure at Nicira, which was acquired by VMware
- Helped YouTube scale its executive recruiting function as an in-house recruiter at Google
- Praised by colleagues for thought leadership on executive hiring processes at a16z

## Latest updates

- **2023-04** — Active as Partner, Executive Talent at a16z, focusing on seed-stage portfolio companies across Enterprise, Fintech, Consumer, and American Dynamism verticals
- **2023-06** — Publicly endorsed a16z's executive hiring guide, calling it a must-read for founders navigating executive hiring

## Links

- Website: https://a16z.com/author/mario-linares/
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mariolinares
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mario.linares/

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