Rose Johnson

can't believe Boston and NYTW are over! Someone said Tech Week is like a wedding: lots of build-up, reunions with people you haven't seen in a year, but over before you know it. Which feels accurate! 😅 We're switching gears to think about SF + LA Tech Week in the fall (October 5-18), but for now just celebrating how much fun these east coast tech weeks were. Until next year! (photo politely stolen from @the_futt)

@suffiyanmalikk @davidu @WeThe_Builders @a16z @KTmBoyle great collab!

I got to sit down with David Ulevitch (@davidu) for E31 of We The Builders (@WeThe_Builders). He is a General Partner at @a16z where he cofounded the $1.776 billion American Dynamism practice with @KTmBoyle about 4 years ago. Since then, it has taken over the timeline and become the language many use to describe frontier, deep or hard tech. Friend of the show @lochhead calls this Category Design, where you don’t necessarily have to be the first to become a category leader, you need to frame the problem and do it better than everyone else. We talk about investing strategy, founding story of American Dynamism and what made it a sticky brand, what he has learnt about how the world works from his anthropology background, surveillance concerns with public safety technologies, his best mentor who is not @pmarca and more. American Dynamism focuses on investing in areas such as public safety, aerospace, logistics, national security, defense, manufacturing, industrialization, logistics. Some of the companies in their portfolio include @anduriltech , Amca, @AppliedInt , Apex Space, @AstroMechanica , @Astranis , @basepowerco , @CAForever , @Castelion , @HadrianInc , @NorthwoodSpace , @RadiantNuclear and of course @SpaceX. Founders of many of these will be featured in upcoming episodes or are friends of the show. David was previously the founder and CEO of OpenDNS, a cloud-delivered security service that was acquired by Cisco in 2015 for $635 million. While at @Cisco , David was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Cisco Security — a $2.4 billion annual revenue business with more than 5,000 team members — where he oversaw the company’s global cybersecurity strategy, product portfolio, and business (via A16Z). Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 01:57 - Defining American Dynamism 05:43 - Project Maven and Rebuilding the Arsenal of Democracy 07:24 - Competing with General Catalyst for Anduril 08:49 - Category creation and defining the market 10:57 - The marketing engine of “The American Dream” 15:20 - Replicating Silicon Valley 18:22 - Robot Dogs and General Catalyst 19:47 - 1776 Million: Building the American Dynamism Practice 20:59 - Why Hardware Outperforms Software Over Time 22:38 - Coupling Defense, Energy, and Space 26:28 - Investing in Public Safety 33:01 - Investment Committees are “stupid” 35:39 - Long-term partners over short-term bets 39:23 - Policy, Regulations, and navigating relationships in DC 43:11 - How regulations are slowing us down 46:54 - The Industrial Supply Chain Divergence 51:29 - Global Maritime Dominance and Expanding TAM 53:39 - Venture-Backable Bets in Critical Industrial Infrastructure 1:00:24 - Applying Anthropology: Study of People, Culture, and Political Power 1:04:08 - What Drives Innovation Across Nations? 1:11:49 - Regional Talent and State Incentives 1:15:48 - Moving from Benevolent Dictator to Minority Investor 1:20:42 - Life is Checkers, Not Chess: Agency and Knowing When to Sell 1:26:57 - OpenDNS and the Pivot to Enterprise: Letting Markets Dictate Your Revenue 1:30:13 - The High Bar for Talent: Grittiness, Grind, and Magnetic Leadership 1:33:09 - Attracting Capital via Narrative: Storytelling vs. Lying 1:35:07 - Toastmasters and Single-Topic Debates: Sharpening Communication 1:37:20 - Modern Credentials: Domain Expertise and Sourcing True Signals 1:44:23 - Government Sales 101: Enterprise Sales on Steroids 1:46:34 - Closing

@speedrun Oh hey @_CallMeMacy! Great tips

@thetimhe I know!

@roseajohnson already??

Submissions for SF/LA Tech Week 2026 are open! 🌁 SF Tech Week: October 5-11 🌴 LA Tech Week: October 13-18 hot on the heels of two incredible weeks in NYC/Boston, we're bringing the action to SF + LA this fall. Interested in hosting? Join one of our New Hosts' office hours to get your questions answered: 📅New Host Office Hours: 1. Wednesday 6/24 @ 10:30 AM PT 2. Wednesday 7/22 @ 10:30 AM PT 🔗Registration links below. we'll cover: - how to submit an event, dates and deadlines - Tech Week marketing: how your event will be promoted - ideas for event topics and formats - plus plenty of time for Q&A! We've reviewed >5,000 events at this point(!) so we'll be sharing all our best tips. See you there! @Techweek_

7/22 registration link 👉 partiful.com/e/G9D3YnDHOTju…

6/24 registration link 👉partiful.com/e/DCvzIutybYfq…

@custo_lejla I love free refills!! I’ve been here almost a decade and the magic hasn’t worn off 😂

🇺🇸🥹🙏

@GBxGlobal Sad to miss this! Looked like a great event. I’ll be at the 20th 💪

10 years ago, GBx was founded to connect British founders, investors and operators in the Bay Area. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 Last week we celebrated that milestone with members and friends from across the community. Thank you to everyone who has been part of the journey so far. 🥂 #UKTech

@LorimerVentures @_maxdshaw @bdistel @thisisgrantlee @0thernet @perceptnet @joannakurylo @KristinFracchia @zoesnownyc @Techweek_ @rohitpadmakumar look at that crowd! wow!

@LorimerVentures 4th annual hashtag #NYTechWeek event might've been our best one yet! Our community of 200+ founders, builders, investors, and friends came together for a night of live demos, drinks and great conversation in a beautiful gothic refectory in Chelsea. Special shoutout to our portfolio companies🐎@zocomputer and🧠@GammaApp as well as our friends from🍃 @trywindmill for the amazing live demos. Huge thanks to @VanderbiltU for opening up their stunning refectory on their brand-new NYC campus, and to @_nicolealonso for capturing the whole evening so beautifully. If you're raising a pre-seed or seed round, we'd love to chat.

@stevejang congrats!

In 2023, we pivoted from a generalist fund to a thesis-driven AI and frontier firm. In the midst of this takeoff curve, it’s been wonderful and hard work with our founders, with many lessons and victories along the way. The good work continues, and today I’m excited to share our newest $355M fund! Thanks to @ychernova and @WSJ for writing about our new set of funds, our recent performance, and our renewed early stage mission at @KindredVentures. ☀️ wsj.com/pro/venture-ca…

some stats behind the weeks in Katia's post!

@_CallMeMacy @Techweek_ Bring her next time pls

Home hits different after 12 days on the road 🫶 @Techweek_ thx 4 the mems

@meientc @ElevenLabs 🤩🤩

had to stop by @ElevenLabs popup for that merrrchhh🤩 haggled the ai agent into giving me 50% off… pretty good I must say

AI Faire by @speedrun was 🔥🔥 great way to end the week. Our 4th edition and first in NYC! Congrats @_CallMeMacy @EmlynThompsonLA #NYTechWeek

AI Faire by a16z @speedrun is kicking off with a blast at NY tech week! 23 ambitious AI builders sharing a sneak preview of the future

hey, new york! We made it to Friday 👯 today the focus turns to developer build tracks, technical showcases, and friday celebrations. highlights include the a16z speedrun ai faire, intuit’s ai/ml hackathon, the fireworks ai closing party, and technical tracks with ibm, aws, and google. here’s what’s happening on day 5: a16z & friends • 11:00 AM - AI Faire (a16z speedrun) early morning & resets • 7:30 AM - Morning Run (Wildwood) • 7:30 AM - Pickleball Tournament (Optemization) • 8:00 AM - Central Park Walk (Fish) ai labs & tech giants • 9:00 AM - Women in AI Breakfast (instalily) • 9:00 AM - AWS AI Hackathon (AWS) • 10:00 AM - Open for Ops (Greenhouse) • 11:00 AM - AI & Workforce Model (IBM) • 11:00 AM - PopUp (ElevenLabs) • 1:00 PM - AI Agents for Science (GRAIL) • 3:00 PM - Gemini Build & Tea (GDG NYC) • 4:00 PM - AI/ML Hackathon (Intuit) • 6:00 PM - AI Salon (You dot com) • 6:00 PM - Closing Party (Fireworks AI) venture capital & pitch showcases • 8:30 AM - Brand in Venture (Astronaut) • 9:30 AM - Pitch the Product (C10 Labs) • 3:00 PM - Seed Investor Showcase (Presentation) • 5:00 PM - Ventures Happy Hour (Morgan Stanley) • 5:30 PM - Creator Social (Wells Fargo) • 6:30 PM - Investor Connect (ASAN) • 8:00 PM - Launch Party (165 Global) deep tech, engineering & frontier • 10:00 AM - Sprint Build Live (XLAI) • 12:00 PM - SaaS Dead Panel (Elysian) • 4:00 PM - Finance Agents Demo (JPM) • 5:00 PM - Developer Night (Sentry) • 6:00 PM - Deploying Robotics (NY Robotics)

New York is the best place on earth to build. Over the past 15 years of investing in and backing the New York tech ecosystem, I’ve watched this community evolve from an underdog into an absolute powerhouse. Silicon Valley will always be an incredible sandbox for core technology infrastructure. However, if your goal is to build a company that deeply integrates with, scales within, and transforms the global economy, NYC has become the ultimate launchpad. Here’s why: 1. Elite Talent Pool The historic playbook of elite engineering and business graduates automatically packing a bag for the West Coast has shifted. New York now commands one of the dense and diverse talent pipelines in the world. • According to recent ecosystem talent studies, New York captures 10.1% of the entire U.S. college graduating class. For context, the next closest market is Los Angeles at 4.9%. • The region is anchored by world-class institutions like Columbia, NYU, Cornell Tech, and Princeton, generating a massive annual surplus of technical degrees. • NYC offers an unmatched concentration of seasoned operators from the Fortune 500. Founders can access developers who deeply understand enterprise procurement, global compliance, and commercial scaling. 2. Vertical Dominance Building software for other software companies is a viable model, but building for massive, real-world legacy industries is where the greatest value is created. New York naturally dominates these sectors because the buyers, experts, and operators live here. • Fintech: According to data from Carta, NYC startups secured 48.5% of all fintech venture dollars raised in the United States, nearly doubling the Bay Area’s 25.9%. • Healthcare & BioTech: Driven by nine major academic medical centers and extensive public-private investments, NYC is the nation’s #1 market for healthtech funding. • PropTech & Retail/Commerce: As the undisputed global capital of both real estate and retail, NYC serves as the primary testing ground for commerce, luxury tech, and property management. • Media & AdTech: The city remains the epicenter of global media, giving local B2B SaaS and marketing tech platforms immediate, direct access to major enterprise enterprise accounts. 3. Capital Resilience and Ecosystem Value The myth that massive, sophisticated early-stage checks are exclusive to the West Coast has been thoroughly debunked by now. • According to the Startup Genome Global Startup Ecosystem Report, NYC’s ecosystem value has now surpassed $620 billion. • Even during broader macroeconomic market corrections, PitchBook and NVCA data shows that median seed and Series A round sizes in New York have remained remarkably resilient, occasionally outpacing the Bay Area in deal velocity stability. • Tech sector employment in NYC has grown by 160% over the last 15 years, outperforming the national tech sector growth rate by nearly 3x. 4. Structural Diversity Building a global product for a diverse world requires an environment that reflects that world. Groupthink is a silent killer of early-stage startups. NYC’s greatest superpower is its built-in cognitive diversity. • Tech ecosystem demographic data highlights that Black and Hispanic workers make up 24.3% of NYC’s tech workforce, compared to roughly 8.2% in the San Francisco Bay Area and 10.4% in Boston. • According to regional ecosystem tracking, 17% of all Black and Latino founders in the U.S. who have successfully raised $1M+ are based right here in New York. Next Wave NYC We built our pre-seed venture fund, wholly backed by Flybridge Capital, to be a reflection of this exact ecosystem. Our fund is run entirely by founders and operators who have spent the last decade helping scale the NYC startup scene. Our extended investment team includes leaders and alumni from OpenAI, Google, Snowflake, Foursquare, Bowery Farming, Casper, Chief, Flatiron School, Major League Hacking, Squire, WeWork, and The Wing. We are laser-focused on being the very first commitment and the loudest operational supporter for builders tackling: • Native AI applications • Agentic AI for the enterprise • Developer platforms for AI builders If you are building the future here in New York, we would love to learn more about what you're working on. Our inboxes are always open. Let's build. 🗽 — Jesse

Thank you for the feature and for the dose of AI optimism @LydiaMoynihan! 🗽 nypost.com/2026/06/04/bus…