Last February, Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z) partner and former Snap and Twitter executive Sriram Krishnan was barely a month into his new, off-hours gig as co-host of a Clubhouse talk show when he nearly broke the internet. He’d texted Elon Musk earlier in the day to see if Musk would come on The Good Time Show, and hours later, the Tesla CEO dialed in to grill RobinHood CEO Vlad Tenev (whom Musk invited) about the GameStop trading controversy. More than 5,000 people joined the Clubhouse room, even more live-streamed the conversation on YouTube, and A16Z released it as a podcast. “It was a crazy moment,” says Krishnan, who dreamed up The Good Time Show with his wife and co-host Aarthi Ramamurthy—a fellow tech veteran who joined Clubhouse in May to run its international business—as something fun to do during the pandemic.
The show streams at 10 p.m. Pacific time and it has struck a chord with audiences and power players alike who have gravitated to its earnestness and treatment of guests as peers. “My wife and I are nerds,” says Krishnan. “I don’t pretend to understand things like Hollywood. But we come from a place of curiosity and optimism and I think that lends a particular vibe to the show.” Other notable drop-ins have included Mark Zuckerberg, the artist Beeple just before his record-setting $69 million NFT sale, and tennis star Naomi Osaka.
Krisnan’s show has given A16Z, which is Clubhouse’s primary investor, a way to share positive perspectives on tech directly with those seeking to be inspired (in addition to its rosy new content site Future), and it creates pulpit for people who might have a not-pleasant relationship with the media. “If you’re going to a late-night talk show, you’re going to a studio, there are lights and makeup, it’s a whole process,” says Krishnan. “But on our show you’re probably just at home, it’s late at night and you’re very relaxed. I think that gets people to open up. We get them to talk about things they don’t usually talk about.”
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