It was mostly by chance that the acquisitions of Cursor and OpenRouter landed just four days apart. But for a16z’s infrastructure team, which had a hand in both, it made for an especially glorious victory lap: Cursor was the biggest M&A exit of all time, and OpenRouter was a monster too, returning more than 50x in just two years.
So when Martin Casado, who leads that team, reached out to talk shop after the news, we were surprised that what animated him most was all the maneuvering to get credit for the two big scores.
Individual VCs claiming deals, he told us, is “a historical relic” of a bygone era in tech investing. Modern venture, he argued, doesn’t rest on individual decisions.
“I’ve done almost 200 deals,” Casado said. “I can’t think of a single deal that other people weren’t absolutely instrumental in, whether it’s closing the deal, sourcing, doing the picking, diligence.”