[propter_hoc]

I agree that it's not an apples-to-apples comparison, but it's arguably somewhat in A16z's favor. This is because the fund manager has the ability to defer capital calls as long as possible, because that starts the IRR clock ticking.

This is fairly little known, but large fund managers like A16z have access to "capital call lines of credit," provided by specialty lending arms of banks. These are loans secured by the commitments from highly-creditworthy institutional investors that allow the fund manager to fund expenses and investments by drawing down on the LOC instead of making a capital call. This allows the fund manager to push out the IRR clock even longer, and effectively levers their returns.

A more effective comparison might take into account both your comment regarding deployment period, and also the effect of investing on margin with the CCLOC.

Edit: an article on the phenomenon and how it is a bit tilted towards the fund manager: https://www.pionline.com/article/20180402/PRINT/180409992/ri...