About

Robert Hackett is a cohost of the web3 with a16z podcast, part of the Andreessen Horowitz podcast network. He is also features editor and head of special projects at a16z crypto, which includes coproducing the annual State of Crypto Report. In addition to producing regular content for the website and newsletter, Robert edited Chris Dixon’s Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet (Random House, January 2024), which made The New York Times Best Sellers list, USA Today’s Best-selling Booklist, and received other accolades.

Before joining a16z in November 2021, Robert was a senior writer and editor at Fortune. There, he cofounded the first mainstream media franchise dedicated to crypto (Fortune Crypto, née The Ledger); and also wrote the first major print-magazine profile of Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, in 2016. Robert reported, wrote, and edited many features, news stories, and newsletters (including Data Sheet); co-chaired conferences (including Brainstorm Tech); hosted video shows (such as Tech Debate); and helped manage the 40 Under 40 list at Fortune. Robert also frequently moderated talks for the World Economic Forum, Web Summit, Money2020, SXSW, and other conferences; and has appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America, CNBC, WNYC, Fox 5 NY, and elsewhere to speak about the intersection of technology and business including crypto, cybersecurity, quantum computing, and other topics.

Robert spearheaded the fall 2021 issue of Fortune, which received “best innovation project” at the 2021 EPPY Awards — for an NFT auction game that raised over $1 million, including more than $600,000 for non-profit organizations — and which was runner-up for “best business reporting.” Robert was a finalist for the 2018 Larry Birger Young Business Journalist Award; and was an honoree at the 2017 SABEW Best in Business Awards for his Fortune cover story “Blockchain Mania!” He was also a research assistant on Fortune’s 2016 Gerald Loeb Award-nominated investigation into North Korea’s cyberattack on Sony Pictures.

Prior to Fortune, Robert worked at Nautilus Magazine, TED Conferences, and Johnson & Johnson. He did his master's degree in journalism at Columbia University and double majored in chemistry + chemical biology and English at Cornell University, with minors in history and science + technology studies. He was also a Simons Summer Research Fellow at Stony Brook University and Intel Science Talent Search honoree in 2008.