What is a16z please?

Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm.

The name has always made me think it was a bunch of corporate lawyers. I suppose the difference is increasingly academic.

A16Z stands for the first and last letters of their names, 16 is the number of characters in between.

I know, I'm talking about the full name.

The subtext is: "maybe they're pushing the abbreviated brand because they want to sound less like a law firm."