andrew chen

update for a16z speedrun- It's now the FINAL week to apply for the upcoming 007 program hosted in San Francisco. Applications close officially on May 17th at 11:59 PM PST. Here's the link: speedrun.a16z.com Why apply? we'll invest up to $1m in your brand new startup. It can be pre-launch, pre-traction, and even pre-idea (for the right teams) and the a16z speedun team works with you to launch/scale If you're reading this, you might be: - hanging out at a job, waiting for your next promo/bonus/X-year mark/etc - you might have a side project, thinking it should be something bigger - you're talking with a work friend about starting something - finishing school, wondering if you should accept your job The thing i’d encourage you to think about is that most startups don’t start with certainty. they start with a feeling that something is pulling at you and won’t go away. A surprising number of the best founders we meet are very early: - no company yet - no deck - no huge insight tweet thread - sometimes not even fully committed yet Don't wait until you have the perfect idea, or feel “ready.” Or everyone around you agrees, so the opportunity cost feels lower. But by then, usually the edge is gone. These insights and windows don't last forever This is the best environment in history for small teams to build massive things. AI has compressed team sizes, timelines, distribution, and iteration speed so aggressively that the old career timing assumptions don’t fully apply anymore. anyway, if you’ve been circling the idea of starting something, this might be the sign to actually do it Official stuff below: - May 17th deadline to apply (this week!) - Official dates for SR007 are from July 27 through October 11, 2026 in San Francisco - We wire funds fast and onboard you to our network of over 250 partnered tools-providers with a total of $5M in credits. - Our stacked team of battle-tested operators who help cover your gaps, without adding headcount. Expect dedicated support and programs from experts across talent, recruiting, go-to-market, marketing, creators, capital network, HR, even visa support. - a16z speedrun is extremely selective. Join an elite community of over 600+ founders who actively support each other and serve as a powerful source of customer introductions and product feedback.

Speedrun Founder Profile: Austin, Vatsal, & Ankit Two brothers and their childhood friend Cold applied to speedrun (SR006) Left frontier labs and big tech to start Modern Industrials Three months later they closed their round and are heading back home to build. Their story:

update for a16z speedrun- It's now the FINAL week to apply for the upcoming 007 program hosted in San Francisco. Applications close officially on May 17th at 11:59 PM PST. Here's the link: speedrun.a16z.com Why apply? we'll invest up to $1m in your brand new startup. It can be pre-launch, pre-traction, and even pre-idea (for the right teams) and the a16z speedun team works with you to launch/scale If you're reading this, you might be: - hanging out at a job, waiting for your next promo/bonus/X-year mark/etc - you might have a side project, thinking it should be something bigger - you're talking with a work friend about starting something - finishing school, wondering if you should accept your job The thing i’d encourage you to think about is that most startups don’t start with certainty. they start with a feeling that something is pulling at you and won’t go away. A surprising number of the best founders we meet are very early: - no company yet - no deck - no huge insight tweet thread - sometimes not even fully committed yet Don't wait until you have the perfect idea, or feel “ready.” Or everyone around you agrees, so the opportunity cost feels lower. But by then, usually the edge is gone. These insights and windows don't last forever This is the best environment in history for small teams to build massive things. AI has compressed team sizes, timelines, distribution, and iteration speed so aggressively that the old career timing assumptions don’t fully apply anymore. anyway, if you’ve been circling the idea of starting something, this might be the sign to actually do it Official stuff below: - May 17th deadline to apply (this week!) - Official dates for SR007 are from July 27 through October 11, 2026 in San Francisco - We wire funds fast and onboard you to our network of over 250 partnered tools-providers with a total of $5M in credits. - Our stacked team of battle-tested operators who help cover your gaps, without adding headcount. Expect dedicated support and programs from experts across talent, recruiting, go-to-market, marketing, creators, capital network, HR, even visa support. - a16z speedrun is extremely selective. Join an elite community of over 600+ founders who actively support each other and serve as a powerful source of customer introductions and product feedback.

@bygregorr Isn’t a working prototype super easy with gen AI? But yeah team + idea is enough

@andrewchen Curious for brand new startups at this stage, does a16z still expect a working prototype by May 17th or is the idea and founding team enough to get through?

@0xDavide Nope! We’ve switched fully to SF

@andrewchen Any plans for another LA batch?

@auTechArena We love aussies! There’s nothing special for international folks particularly if they’d like to stay in SF. Even easier for aussies actually

@andrewchen Love this! Amazing opportunity. Passing it on to my mates in Sydney. Any tips for applicants from Australia?

@realameerdev Come to SF for a few months, maybe you’ll want to stay!

@andrewchen What if I'm not based in SF?

@vijaytupakula @sumoru Great! Thank you

@andrewchen @sumoru Hey Andrew, submitted my application earlier today!! SavvyAgents.ai

a16z speedrun applications close in just 5 days, on May 17th at 11:59pm PST. If you are applying or already applied and believe you're building something special, DM me what you're working on with a quick intro on the team. As a scout, I can refer founders directly to the speedrun team, and in some cases write a small investment check in < 24hrs if I see strong potential.

@geren8te Not announced yet!

@andrewchen I'm booked through September. What are the dates for 008?

@BuxtonMatthew @speedrun Haha @RKRigney ??

@andrewchen @speedrun I applied and got a response from a genuine human. I checked. He did not send a recipe for flan to all the applicants 😂

@hanhanhan_kim Have loved working with you on fern!

@andrewchen amazing opportunity! everyone should apply, don’t miss your chance!

@OwlyPosting lol

PS. it's always super helpful to get an intro from someone in our community - either speedrun founders, other investors, etc., who can recommend you! This way we can give you the proper attention. Feel free to reach out through our network

Proactive AI Agents Today’s AI products are reactive. You give the model a prompt, it responds with an answer. These are useful, but I’m excited about products that take this further and shift the paradigm from “ask → answer” to “observe → act." These agents will continuously monitor context in the background across all of your connected tools and data, predict what matters, and take action before being asked to do so – much like a human does. So instead of you prompting the model, the model will start prompting you. Examples here could include agents that remind you about tasks you forgot to complete, resolve customer issues before support tickets are filed, or debug and ship code fixes automatically. This shift represents a new paradigm where AI products behave more like humans and less like tools. We’re already starting to see this dynamic with products like OpenClaw, Poke, and more - and we’ve only scratched the surface of capabilities here. We’re accepting applications for the next cohort of @a16z @speedrun – If you’re building the next generation of AI products, apply online.

@JackSoslow @weissenberger_j Congrats @JackSoslow + team and glad to continue working together!!

We're excited to announce Ciridae's $20M Seed, led by Accel, with participation from a16z, General Catalyst, Sunflower, Backcountry, and our friends and family. Jack (@weissenberger_j) and I met years ago through our then-girlfriends, now wives, and have been hacking on projects together ever since. He was building AI for enterprises at Apple and Tenyx. I was at a16z, watching the same businesses try to adopt it and fail. We compared notes and realized the options for enterprises were not only bad for the business but bad for the operators! We looked at each other and said, “I think we can do this better…” Since then, working with startups, governments, and PE-backed businesses, we have made every mistake worth making, and only now feel like we're beginning to solve the real problem of enterprise-wide AI Transformation. This “real economy”, the businesses that keep this country running, have been under-appreciated by Silicon Valley and under-transformed by New York. Yet these are the businesses with the most to gain from AI and the least equipped to capture it. The world does not move itself. Ciridae is the AI Transformation Firm for the real economy. We embed with businesses that move the physical world. The distributors, construction, logistics, home services, staffing, and more, and rebuild their core operations as AI-native operating systems. End to end. One accountable partner. In weeks through our platform. As the models become intelligent enough to accomplish most knowledge work, the economy’s bottleneck is now Transformation, the work of integrating intelligent software into a business and rewiring the business so AI runs the operation and people run the AI. We believe AI Transformation is a new problem that requires a new business. New team, new technologies, and new business model. Not a Frankenstein's monster of transformation in parts. In 2025, we hit high-seven figures in revenue, grew profitably, worked with governments with Trillions in GDP and PE Funds totalling Trillions in AUM. @Accel and @ChristineEsser backed us to scale the team, deepen the platform, and bring AI Transformation to more of the businesses that need it most. If you lead or back a business that wants AI to be the reason you win, reach out. If you want exposure to real problems, with real ownership, and work alongside the highest-merit team you can find, reach out. One business at a time. More to do. Onwards.

@0xAlexKorn Similar to what we've seen with social media, the people who are going to be best at this will just be naturals. You won't be able to pay a firm to make you good at this

@andrewchen political consultants are about to find out the scariest opponent is a bored guy with runway and too much free time

LA is seeing the world’s first political election determined by AI-created viral meme videos Historically a very very large % of the dollars raised in any election goes to trad media - making commercials, buying air time, etc We’re seeing AI + social disruption live… a preview of the future!

@LArothstein I'm optimistic. The city had many many Caruso supporters, and Pratt is using some of the Caruso language, but doing it in a more charismatic, social/AI-native way

@andrewchen Most Angelenos are liberals who don’t look at this stuff

@griswold Agreed. The future of politics might feel more random - more reality tv stars, social media influencers, random breakouts - but also more democratic too. You can be supported by people not just the big institutional political parties and apparatuses

@andrewchen I was talking to a political candidate last night, and he lamented the impact of (not) "being rich before you enter politics." AI should help here -- and filter the candidates a bit.

@PaulGHubers youtube is gold these days

@andrewchen Yeah they make good stuff. I liked their videos on CPU logic and the one how they are made. Indeed excellent overviews.

nice overview of GPU internals How do Graphics Cards Work? Exploring GPU Architecture youtu.be/h9Z4oGN89MU?si…