i've seen a few start-up founders panic at the sight of a well-funded competitor launching into their space. but the counter-intuitive thing is - more competition is good for you! here's why 1) competition validates the market - many other (presumably) smart hard working people recognize there's an opportunity, so you're likely onto something. in fact, the presence of 0 competitors can often be a yellow flag - you might be too early, the market might structurally suck but you just don't know it yet, etc 2) nothing galvanizes a team like a shared public enemy. it's no longer a solitary marathon, it's now a team sprint. framed well ("we deserve to win" etc), i've seen competition sharpen focus, cut the fat off roadmaps, and dramatically accelerate shipping velocity 3) your competition likely has no idea what they're doing. maybe they had a viral video launch, but half their "product demo" could have been a smoke-screen or maybe they just lost their star engineer etc - you just don't know! even the start-ups that present the best to the outside, can often be a complete circus on the inside ultimately the best thing you can do as an early-stage founder in a competitive market is to just ship ship ship. stay focused, listen to your customers, and ship great product. don't get too bogged down about the competition - they're likely going to screw up =)

We’re excited to visit Israel soon to talk a16z @speedrun and meet early-stage startups & investors in one of the great tech ecosystems! Let us know if you’ll be in town 🙌

“The best startup ideas are based on earned secrets” - a founder’s unique insight into a market or problem space that few other folks understand (yet) Airtable founder @howietl and @andrewchen at @speedrun on advice for new founders searching for PMF today

Getting ready to kick off a16z @speedrun and the energy is electric ⚡️

Shortcut is the product i wish i had when i was in banking - a superhuman excel agent that helps you be 10x more productive, all within the spreadsheet via natural language If your job revolves around spreadsheets, data, or strategic analysis this is a game changer

come work with me @a16z! we're hiring a partner on our Speedrun investment team - this is a small, fast-growing team inside a16z focused on first-money-in investing in brand new, innovative start-ups building on the frontier if you love working hands-on with very early-stage founders at the 0-1 stage, come talk to us or refer a friend we should meet! a bit more about @speedrun - since launching in 2023, a16z Speedrun has invested in over 150 startups with $180M+ in capital deployed. alumni include @Fundamental @hedra_labs @k_idofficial @florafaunaai @RunwareAI @sweatpals @humancomputerco and many more our investment partners help identify and select the companies we invest in - thinking critically about new technologies and market trends. they also serve as mentors for the companies they invest in, helping them make progress across product, GTM, fundraising, etc a few things we look for: - relevant experience as a builder (engineering, product) or an investor - interest in start-ups - founder empathy is a key a16z cultural value. you've either founded a start-up, worked at one, or are contributing on the side - technical / passion for AI - you've embraced AI in your workflows and might be vibe coding a side project on weekends - social network - you're at home networking with founders, and might be active on X or Substack if this role seems exciting, we'd love to hear from you (or a friend)!

a common trap I see start-ups fall into is getting stuck making small tweaks / optimizations to a product without core PMF, when what they really need is a big bold swing in a new direction if your W1 retention is 10%, i'm sorry but you likely need to rethink the core product - are you solving the right problem? are you going after the right users? is your technical approach correct? etc fine-tuning the onboarding flow or adding small incremental features usually won't get you to PMF if you don't already have some measure of it unfortunately it's a bit counter-intuitive because culturally we love hearing successful founders tell stories about how they "grinded it out" one feature at a time. but hidden beneath those glossy Forbes interviews is often a tale of pivots and risky experimental bets that seemed crazy at the time be bold, be free to do crazy! don't get stuck in optimization hell - you could have just worked at a FANG company for that 🙂

I always find it unbelievable when i hear of VCs taking vacation for most of the summer. Like is this just a myth? Totally cool to take 1-2 weeks off, but to be on a yacht for > a month when founders are grinding and a new sota model releases every other week is just crazy

Wow @grok as an always-present, interactive AI waifu companion inside self-driving cars is going to be wild Everyone is either going to be riveted, wide awake for the entire road trip, or car accident rates will skyrocket

Big update: I've left a16z and started a company! At a16z, I evaluated thousands of AI companies from seed to scale. This taught me something crucial: innovation is exciting, but true transformation - embedding AI into the core of our economy - is an entirely different challenge. AI is our generation's defining technology. But remarkable technology alone isn't enough. We need to bridge the gap between potential and performance, between demos and deployed systems that power our world. This is the era of AI Transformation, and this is what I'm committing the rest of my life to. I'm thrilled to build alongside my co-founder @weissenberger_j, whose brilliance in AI (and the basketball court) continually inspires me. Six intense months in, we’ve: - Secured major government contracts - Transformed prominent PE-backed companies - Assembled an exceptional team in San Francisco - Received funding from top-tier investors More details soon - but if you're passionate about this space, I'd love to connect. We're scaling fast, hiring now, and there's no better time to reach out. Onwards!