a16z hires former Republican Congressman Patrick McHenry as advisor | TechCrunch

Former North Carolina Congressman Patrick McHenry announced Wednesday that he landed a job with VC firm Andreessen Horowitz. He will be a Senior Advisor.

His post on X said little about what the job entails, except to be advocating for startups (which a16z likes to call “little tech”) with policymakers. A16z did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

McHenry spent 20 years in Congress before retiring in January. As Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee he was perhaps best known for dressing down then SEC chair Gary Gensler.

Gensler had particularly become a boogeyman in the crypto world, filing lawsuits against crypto exchanges like Coinbase, and threatening to sue others like Robinhood. The current SEC is busy dropping those suits and investigations.

“Under Chair Gensler, the SEC has become a rogue agency,” said McHenry during a hearing in September, accusing the SEC chair of “regulation by enforcement.”

Meanwhile, a16z, which has raised $7.6 billion in funds dedicated to crypto/web3 tech as of 2022, has been embedding itself into all things policy and government lately. Earlier this month, Brian Quintenz, who leads policy for a16z’s crypto team, said he’s being appointed to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Plus Sriram Krishnan, a former general partner at a16z, is also now a White House senior policy advisor; Scott Kupor, one of the firm’s managing partners, was tapped to lead the Office of Personnel Management; and Jamie Sullivan, another investor at the firm, is said to be advising DOGE. 

a16z’s burgeoning American Dynamism practice, which backs startups in defense and government tech, is also doing a lot of hiring, most recently adding former Marine Daniel Penny as an investor.