General Catalyst posted VC rage bait and it worked, especially on a16z
General Catalyst posted VC rage bait and it worked, especially on a16z
General Catalyst 发布了 VC 圈的“引战”广告，效果拔群，尤其是成功激怒了 a16z
One of the most entertaining moments in VC this week was a piece of rage-bait marketing from General Catalyst. In a now-viral post on X that parodies the old Mac vs. PC commercials, the venture firm — better known as GC — posted a “VC vs GC” video on Wednesday. 本周风险投资（VC）圈最有趣的时刻之一，莫过于 General Catalyst (GC) 发布的一则“引战”营销广告。周三，这家知名风投机构在 X（原 Twitter）上发布了一段名为“VC vs GC”的视频，模仿了经典的“Mac vs. PC”系列广告，目前该视频已在网上疯传。
The VC was played by a tall actor in a baggy shirt and vest with a distinctly large, bald head — an apparent dig at Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Marc Andreessen. (But the real Andreessen never looks that disheveled). 视频中，“VC”角色由一名身材高大、穿着宽松衬衫和背心的演员扮演，他有着一个标志性的大光头——这显然是在影射 Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) 的联合创始人 Marc Andreessen。（不过，现实中的 Andreessen 从未如此邋遢。）
The GC character was played by a man with a thick head of dark hair, white kicks, and a tendency to stare deeply into the camera. He was clearly supposed to represent actor Justin Long’s cooler, “hipper” Mac character from the original commercials, in contrast to John Hodgman’s straight-laced “square” PC persona. “GC”角色则由一名留着浓密黑发、穿着白色运动鞋、喜欢深情凝视镜头的男子扮演。他显然是在致敬原版广告中 Justin Long 饰演的那个更酷、更“潮”的 Mac 角色，与 John Hodgman 饰演的那个古板、守旧的 PC 形象形成鲜明对比。
GC asks VC about his robotic dog. VC explains, “This is Woof AI” and then extols the virtues of the artificial companion (you don’t need to walk it or break the news to the kids when it dies!) and declares, “You’ll never want a real dog after this.” VC mentions that his firm is leading the seed round and pitches GC to join the cap table. GC 询问 VC 关于他的机器狗的事。VC 解释说：“这是 Woof AI”，并大肆吹捧这种人工智能伴侣的优点（不需要遛狗，也不用在它“死”的时候向孩子们解释！），并宣称：“用了这个，你再也不会想要真狗了。”VC 提到他的公司正在领投种子轮，并游说 GC 加入投资人行列。
GC explains how people like real dogs and remarks, “I’d love to hear more, but we actually have a really high bar around responsibility for these things.” Then VC kicks the AI dog and the dog chases him off the screen. GC 则表示人们还是喜欢真狗，并评论道：“我很想多听听，但我们对这类事物的责任感有着非常高的门槛。”随后，VC 踢了那只 AI 狗一脚，结果狗反过来把 VC 追出了屏幕。
The post has now been viewed 2.4 million times with hundreds of shares and comments, and thousands of likes. I’d have to read so far between the lines that I’d be off the page and peering into another book to unpack this, but I’ll try anyway. The message, roughly: Other VCs, and a16z in particular, will fund anything. GC won’t. (I asked about this. GC hasn’t responded.) 该帖文目前浏览量已达 240 万次，转发和评论数以百计，点赞数以千计。要解读其中的深意，我得把字里行间读得透透的，甚至要跳出书本去揣摩，但我还是想试一试。其核心信息大致是：其他风投，尤其是 a16z，什么项目都投；而 GC 不会。（我曾就此询问 GC，但未获回应。）
It’s a pointed argument if so, and not entirely without basis. Andreessen’s firm frequently invests in companies that are considered controversial, like the surveillance startup Flock Safety, AI notetaker Cluely, and Adam Neumann’s Flow. But the same measure could just as easily be applied to General Catalyst. GC’s portfolio includes Anduril, Percepta, and Polymarket. 如果真是这样，这个观点可谓一针见血，且并非完全没有根据。Andreessen 的公司经常投资一些备受争议的企业，例如监控初创公司 Flock Safety、AI 笔记工具 Cluely 以及 Adam Neumann 的 Flow。但同样的标准也完全可以套用到 General Catalyst 身上，GC 的投资组合中也包括 Anduril、Percepta 和 Polymarket 等公司。
My takeaway is that GC wanted to show an a16z-type character kicking a dog, without anyone actually kicking an actual dog because that would be a major problem. Many of the comments on the video seemed to find the video, and the choice to post it, cringe. Plenty liked and loved it, too. 我的理解是，GC 只是想展示一个“a16z 式”的角色踢狗的画面，同时又不能真的去踢一只真狗，因为那会引发严重的问题。视频下方的许多评论似乎觉得这段视频及其发布行为令人尴尬（cringe），但也有很多人表示非常喜欢。
Compulsive X user Andreessen himself couldn’t resist responding, many, many times. He said it made GC look “smarmy” and said, “Stay tuned for our upcoming ad campaign, ‘We’re the VC who doesn’t sneer at your idea.’” He kept going from there. My personal favorite was: “The thing they got right is the relative heights.” X 平台的“重度用户”Andreessen 本人也忍不住多次回应。他称这让 GC 看起来“油腔滑调”，并表示：“敬请期待我们即将推出的广告活动，主题是‘我们是那种不会嘲笑你创意的风投’。”之后他还在不断回击。我个人最喜欢的一条是：“他们唯一做对的一点就是（我们之间的）身高差。”
As others noted, you know you’ve hit the right rage bait when the target takes it. There were plenty of a16z partners and staffers who came to Andreessen’s defense, too. So much so that their reactions drew lots of comments. My personal favorite in this category was from VSC Ventures VC Jay Kapoor: “GC vs. A16Z beef is like Kendrick vs. Drake for people who know what a 409A valuation is.” 正如其他人所言，当你成功激怒了目标对象时，说明你的“引战”策略奏效了。许多 a16z 的合伙人和员工也纷纷站出来为 Andreessen 辩护，以至于他们的反应引发了大量评论。在这一类评论中，我个人最喜欢的是来自 VSC Ventures 的 VC Jay Kapoor 的那句：“GC 和 a16z 的互撕，简直就是懂 409A 估值的人群里的 Kendrick 对战 Drake。”