Why a16z is investing up to $1M in very early stage startups

Come work with me 1:1, or refer folks please!

dear readers,

Alright, I’m back in (currently cloudy) LA after spending a couple months in San Francisco. It was super fun to be back in the bubble. It seemed, right after COVID, that so many other geos were ascendant — you saw a big explosion in LA and NY, and a lot of VCs (including us) starting offices in London. But very clearly the AI revolution has brought a lot of the action back to SF, even if folks are doing it remotely and SOMA is a bit dead. It was great to catch up with many of you over dinners, events, mixers etc. Bumped into a lot of friends during urban hikes in the city also!

I was in SF working on my big project at Andreessen Horowitz right now, which is building a16z speedrun (more details here). This is a new program where we invest up to $1M into very early stage startups and then work with them closely over 90 days, then launch them into the world. I am very involved, and it’s been fun to get my hands dirty working 1:1 and in small groups with founders early on their journey. There’s a new cycle kicking off, so would love if you could:

• recommend anyone I should be working with!

• fine to share the website below, or reach out via neutrals

• details + dates are: up to $1M investment from a16z speedrun plus $5M credits from our main partners (AWS, GCP, OpenAI, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Stripe, Deel, etc)

• the next programs kicks off July 28 to October 10, 2025 this year.

• speakers include the founders of Figma, Zynga, Zillow, DoorDash, Twilio, etc etc

• application deadline is May 11, so please get ahold of us by then

Here’s how to apply to the program.

And more details, and an FAQ.

OK — so a bit more details on how this all happened:

I started working on Speedrun at a16z because there are a ton of very early stage startups out there that are building in and around our focus of tech, entertainment and AI. Many of these early wouldn’t know what to do with a16z’s usual check size of $10 or $20 million, but they would benefit from the a16z team (now numbering nearly 600 strong!) that provide access to everything from hiring, partnerships, financing, marketing, and everything else. I love working with founders at this stage.

Also it does not slip our mind that many of the best startups on the planet were started by first time founders and also repeat founders that also have a chip on their shoulder. We feel like we’re not able to help as many entrepreneurs if we just focus on ones that have a ton of revenue and are growing quickly (though we want to work with those ones too!). So starting about 18 months ago, we kicked off a16z Speedrun which is now heading into its 5th cycle. It’s been awesome and very rewarding!

If folks have any questions, I’ll try to address stuff in the comments here on Substack. But best thing to do if you have a specific startup in mind is visit the website.

Thank you!

Andrew