Jonathan Lai

Hey, it's Jon, thanks for stopping by.

I'm a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz and cofounder of a16z Games Fund One. I believe games will play a pivotal role in defining how we socialize, play, and work over the next century. I'm excited to invest at the intersection of games and technology.

Prior to a16z, I was a senior director at Tencent where I led the North America investments team and spearheaded the launch of our WeGame platform for Western games in China. Before that, I was a product manager at Riot Games (acquired by Tencent), where we developed League of Legends, the world's most played PC game. I also served as head of product for Dots, a mobile games start-up that was acquired by Take-Two. HBS MBA and Harvard BA.

A few things I love: sweet tea, good sake, Imagine Dragons, TFT, Dark Souls, my amazing wife Jen, and our brood of voracious Zerglings: Asher, Aiden, & Yellow Kitty.

You can follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn

Writings & Podcasts


The best consumer, enterprise, & fintech apps today embrace game design


The next big innovation in social play will likely come from tabletop games (D&D, Mafia, etc)


We're on the precipice of seeing new categories of AI-first games


Good, fast, & inexpensive: breaking the triangle theory of game development


AI-led creation will lead to new content types and social modalities in the Metaverse


A new generation of instant games is changing how we play, discover, and develop games


Why a16z has started a dedicated games fund and what we invest in (pod)


The promise of cloud gaming lies in software - unique, cloud-native experiences


Applying lessons from game design to software onboarding (tweetstorm)


A new class of creators is emerging as the future of live video entertainment


What's the next Facebook or Snapchat? Look to games to lead the way


Lessons learned as a PM at Riot Games & Tencent and what I look for as an investor


When does play-to-earn and real money trading work in games? (tweetstorm)


Play-to-earn has introduced a new endgame: the management sim (tweetstorm)


In web3, virtual economist will be one of the most in-demand jobs of our time (tweetstorm)


How does Tencent have such a great track record in games? (tweetstorm)


Why and how games have become mainstream today (pod)


Half a billion people played the party game Among Us in Nov, what's going on? (pod)


How games have evolved from entertainment into social networks today (pod)


Web3 project set in the EVE Online universe


Leading platform for interoperable avatars


Leading African games publisher & fintech platform


UGC-as-a-service platform


Interactive IP universe and community built on the blockchain


Next-gen competitive experiences


Cloud-native game studio


Natively cross-platform co-op games


Building a genre-defining web3 MMO


Video social network for the virtual world generation


The stock market for athletes


Both livestreaming and gaming are up massively amidst COVID-19 (pod)


Snapchat is doubling down on games and Bitmoji (pod)


Implications of Seam's ban on NFTs and blockchain games (pod)


Steam releases in China officially and Epic has a tool for creating digital humans (pod)