Miami, FL
Andreessen Horowitz just dealt a blow to tech's move-to-Miami movement
Andreessen Horowitz has reportedly given up on its Miami office after just two years in the space.
The Silicon Valley venture capital firm, also known as a16z, left its Miami Beach office in May because staff “weren’t using it enough,” Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The company had signed a five-year lease in 2022 for 8,300 square feet of space in Miami Beach, the news outlet reported.
The move comes after one of Andreessen Horowitz’s cofounders, Ben Horowitz, announced in July 2022 that the firm was switching to a “new operating model” that involved a network of satellite offices, including new locations in Miami Beach, New York City, and Santa Monica.
“The firm is now virtual, but can materialize physically on command,” Horowitz said at the time.
A year later, the firm’s other cofounder, Marc Andreessen, said that remote work had “detonated” how we connect and that it’s “not a good life” for younger workers, as it robs them of working relationships and opportunities.
Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
Prominent Silicon Valley figures have touted their interest in heading to Miami during the pandemic. VC Keith Rabois, for one, called San Francisco “so massively improperly run and managed that it’s impossible to stay here” before packing up for Miami during the pandemic in 2020.
While some tech and crypto firms have been making an exodus from California in recent years, citing high taxes and the state’s liberal politics, a16z’s departure is the latest sign of shakiness in the migration from the Valley.
Earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal reported that Rabois was planning on living again in San Francisco for at least part of the year, and was renovating his home in the city. The Journal reported that some other startups located in the area, including some Rabois had backed, had moved away from Miami, in part to better attract tech talent.
VC investment in Miami also saw a huge decrease in 2023, dropping 70% to $2 billion, according to the Journal. More recently, dealmaking in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area was $361 million in the second quarter of this year, down from $623.2 million in Q1 of 2024 but comparable to the $377.7 million from Q2 last year, according to PitchBook data.
While some companies who have expanded to Miami or based their operations in the city have since moved elsewhere, the pandemic-era trend of relocating away from San Francisco extended beyond Florida.
Austin has also emerged as another popular destination for firms leaving the Valley. Elon Musk said in July that he’d relocate the headquarters of SpaceX and X, formerly Twitter, from California to Austin after previously moving Tesla’s HQ to the Texas city.