Walt Maciborski

Innovation ecosystems are inherited. There is a spiritual succession that passes from one place to another. They are built from first principles, not copied from playbooks or slogans. @NaithanJones is a three-time founder and former a16z partner who landed in Silicon Valley in 2011 and moved to Austin during the pandemic. One conversation. A ton of fun rabbit holes. Agenda 0:00 Intro + Silicon Valley 2011 and the Web 2 Gold Rush 9:17 How The Social Network Changed the Talent Pipeline 11:16 Inside the a16z Partner Meeting 14:48 Spiritual Succession from Arthur Rock to Austin 18:06 The 2021 Hype Was Real, Just Early 20:26 California and Delaware's Self-Inflicted Wounds 23:43 The 200-Mile Radius 26:26 Permission to Build and the Sunlight Metaphor 30:20 Foundational Models Belong to SF 34:48 Third Places and Connective Tissue 42:29 The Storytelling Gap 45:44 Six-Month Vesting in the AI Era 49:04 Seedance, Suno, and the Creation-Consumption Collapse 54:59 The Barbell of Synthetic Media and Analog Craft 59:27 Copyright, IP, and the Entertainment Layer Cake

@waltmac

American universities stopped optimizing for students a long time ago. Carlos Carvalho, President of @uaustinorg, is building an institution staking its long-term survival entirely on whether its graduates succeed. No tuition. No government money. A 20-year bet on student outcomes. The curriculum starts with the Western canon and ends with whatever technology demands next. That sequence is the thesis. Agenda 0:00 Intro + Three Years In 9:42 The $300M Bet 15:42 The Conglomerate Problem 21:42 Western Canon First 28:42 What AI Changes About Teaching 34:42 The Bastrop Lab 41:42 UATX in the Austin Ecosystem 48:42 Atoms vs Bits in Texas 53:42 American Exceptionalism as Mission 59:42 The Hit Pieces 1:06:42 The UCSD Math Collapse 1:11:42 Grade Inflation as Decay 1:14:42 AI and the Soul Problem

🧬The Austin Bio & Health Roundup returns. New data says Austin has arrived, fresh capital is flowing, and SXSW is putting the ecosystem on stage.🧬 📊 Data @jani_tuomi and I just released the 2025 Austin Bio & Health Report. The era of Austin as an emerging ecosystem is over. • Austin’s Bio & Health hit $1.6B in 2025 VC funding, 2nd highest ever • Austin rose to 6th nationally, essentially tied with LA & San Diego • Ecosystem value jumped 45% to $77B 💰 Funding & Capital Signals @itsfindhelp raised $250M led by TPG to expand its social care coordination and referral platform 🏙️ Community The 4th annual Breyer Capital and @UTAustin Life Science & Healthcare Innovation Summit brought another strong cross-section of academic, clinical, policy, and startup leaders. Thanks @jimihendrixlive and @JimDavis_UT for putting on another wonderful summit. At SXSW, join me for @NucleateHQ Texas’s "State of Biotech in Austin" panel. I’ll be moderating a conversation with Rep. @DonnaHowardTX, @joshuasforrest, Jani Tuomi, Timothy Sullivan, and Nancy Lyon on where the ecosystem stands and what comes next. 🤝 Partnerships & M&A @AutonomizeAIr announced a partnership with @ServiceNow allowing healthcare enterprises to build AI operations across claims, care management, utilization management, and fraud workflows. 🚀 Launches, Expansions, Milestones & Wins UT launched a new venture studio to build startups from research, starting with medical digital twins. Charles Taylor & Mark Arnold are building the infrastructure to accelerate commercialization of university research. 🤠 Texas Bio Triangle The Texas Bio Triangle reached $2.07B in 2025 Bio & Health VC funding, with Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Houston contributing another $477M. What’s Next? 🤠🚀🦾🧬

@waltmac @cbsaustin @cbsaustin @CBSNews is turning real life horror into entertainment.