[foobarqux]

   Mr. Andreessen and his partners have invested so much
   in so many start-ups that it would take a remarkable 
   string of successes to make the approach pay off. For 
   all their skill — the firm bought into the likes of 
   Airbnb, Instagram and Pinterest relatively early — their 
   track record suggests it’s unlikely. Already, they’ve 
   suffered a few impressive flameouts, including Fab, on 
   which they are likely to lose tens of millions of dollars.

[onewaystreet]

That's probably a short-sided opinion. There's a lot of companies in a16z'a portfolio that I could see going public or having a big acquisition in the next 5 years: http://a16z.com/portfolio/

[api]

How do you get the successes without the risk? If that were possible there would be no angel or VC and investment banks would just fund winners according to some formula.