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INVESTING IN MACRO

by Kristina Shen and Zeya Yang
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In recent years, we’ve seen a renaissance in productivity software. To make
knowledge work seamless, internal teams have largely moved off of “hard files,”
toward real-time workspaces with commenting, collaboration, and notifications.
And yet, the way that organizations communicate with each other — inter-company
collaboration — still largely lives in email and file attachments. This is
especially true in professional services industries like consulting, law,
finance, accounting, and insurance that still live in Microsoft Office and PDF
documents.

Our team has pondered the right way to attack this market and redefine the
productivity suite. Nearly two years ago, we met Jacob Beckerman, the founder of
Macro, and we started to get an inkling of what was needed: someone daring
enough to rebuild these programs from the ground up using first principles. They
would need deep user empathy to reimagine the UX for how we process information,
along with an obsession around product quality to ensure the new product rivals
the fidelity of the incumbent solutions. As we spent more time with Jacob, we
became convinced that he was this person, and that Macro had the potential to be
this product.

Macro started off by building a better document editor. When we think about
working across organizations (as opposed to collaborating internally), PDF and
DOCX are the “official” formats to share information in many industries. Yet,
the way we maneuver these documents is archaic. With long documents, or a set of
related documents, we often find ourselves with multiple windows open across
multiple screens, hitting CTRL + F and scrolling ad nauseam. Contrast this to
when we read webpages in a browser, or traverse a codebase — disparate sections
are bidirectional linked, we’re able to click into definitions, and sources are
easily found. Put simply, the context is often immediately accessible. 

Macro made this experience a reality for documents by using novel NLP models to
automatically parse the text to identify and create references throughout
documents. When you open any PDF with Macro, the reading experience becomes
interactive and context-rich with hyperlinks, the way it ought to be. However,
this initial work to modernize the PDF experience was only the first step in
Macro’s grander vision to redefine the productivity suite. Indeed, they have
since added comparison tools to analyze documents side by side, and automation
capabilities to support producing multiple documents simultaneously.

Despite building stealthily, the product hasn’t gone unnoticed by the market.
Each time we caught up with Jacob, Macro had more users, including law firms,
asset managers, and investment banks. We talked to these users and were
delighted to find many power users who exclaimed that the product had unlocked a
new way for them to work. One told us that, “If you’re not already using Macro,
you’re in the stone ages.”

We are thrilled to be backing Jacob and the entire Macro team, and lead their
Seed round, as they pursue their vision to reimagine the productivity suite. The
standards they set for product quality are inspiring. Any knowledge worker who
works with documents on a regular basis should be trying out the Macro product.

***

The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management,
L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its
affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from
third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by
a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not
independently verified such information and makes no representations about the
current or enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a
given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party
advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse
any advertising content contained therein.

This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be
relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult
your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital
assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment
recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore,
this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or
prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when
making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest
in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum,
subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and
should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies
mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments
in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments
will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have
similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed
by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments for which the issuer has not
provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly as well as unannounced
investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at
https://a16z.com/investments/.

Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and
should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance
is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date
indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or
opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and
may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see
https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.

February 8, 2023



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