Thirteen years ago, I wrote a piece for Fortune titled Andreessen envy, which discussed how a relatively young venture capital firm had cornered the media narrative — much to the chagrin of more experienced firms.

• Not named explicitly in that piece was Margit Wennmachers, who led Andreessen Horowitz's communications efforts from its earliest days. She should have been.
• Wennmachers recently retired from a16z, but not before we discussed some of her early memories and lessons learned.

What follows was edited for length and clarity:

Axios: You had a long and successful career as an outside PR advisor. What was the pitch that compelled you to work with a16z?

Wennmachers: "These guys came along and said, 'We're not going to succeed unless we're in the list of top five VC firms, because all the good deals are competitive.'

• That was an interesting marketing challenge because they didn't really have a portfolio, and the list of top VC firms back then didn't change. How do you get on that list ahead of the results?
• But I'd worked with them before and liked that they had ambition and discipline. They didn't golf or have a vineyard or really have hobbies. A lot of VCs have a lifestyle that's not like a startup grind."

Had you been thinking about joining a VC firm?

"No. We even had been skeptical about taking lots of VC firms as clients at Outcast because the only way to be interesting is to be a thought leader, and lots of VCs didn't have the thoughts.

• A lot of VC firms also thought that marketing was beneath them."

What was your initial strategy?

• "Ben wasn't very well known, so I hired Grace [Ellis]. Her job was to make sure Ben's profile was on par with Marc's.
• We also really maximized attention around key moments, like when Marc wrote about software eating the world.
• Or when we did the Skype deal, which was unusual since it was a buyout. We made calls to reporters before Microsoft did its press conference, and 80% of the coverage had us in the headline or the first paragraph. That may seem like a small thing, but it made a big difference. You become omnipresent."

What's your advice to communications leads at other VC firms?

"First, make sure you have a mandate because partnerships are next-level complicated.

• Then figure out what people at your firm are good at and what motivates them. It's their ideas that made the difference. Copying doesn't work."

What's the biggest mistake you see from peers?

"Some people in my profession are very harmony-driven and think they can't ever have a negative headline. But that's usually chatter, not real business.

• Now, if you f**k up and have to do a product recall, or lied, those are actual problems. But most people on Twitter are just clutching pearls, and it will pass."

Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: ICE), the New York Stock Exchange's parent company, agreed to invest $2 billion for around a 20% stake in Polymarket.

Why it's the BFD: Wall Street is embracing prediction markets, which not too long ago were viewed as legally dubious curiosities.

• It also puts new pressure on operators of sportsbook apps, with shares of both DraftKings and Flutter down in premarket trading.

Catch up quick: Polymarket previously raised over $250 million, including this past summer at around a $1 billion valuation. Backers include Founders Fund, Polychain Capital, General Catalyst, and 1789 Capital.

• It also paid $112 million to acquire derivatives exchange QCEX, which has a CFTC license that will let Polymarket enter the U.S. market.

The bottom line: As part of the deal, ICE said that it will become "a global distributor of Polymarket's event-driven data," and "partner on future tokenization initiatives."

• EvenUp, an SF-based provider of AI solutions for personal injury law, raised $150m in Series E funding at a valuation north of $2b. Bessemer Venture Partners led, joined by B Capital, SignalFire, Lightspeed, HarbourVest, Adams Street, RELX, and Broadlight Capital. axios.link/46HO2Uk