hearts and mines @tbc415 @MarianaMinerals

People think the DoD has all this fancy autonomous tech and really they don't. Anything more complicated than getting a drone to fly from a pre-defined point a to point b with full comms and gps is actually really hard.

hardness is your moat, run towards hard

@jacob_dphillips, always cooking!

RT @a16z: We asked @MarianaMinerals CEO @tbc415 on what he learned at Tesla: "Tesla had to vertically integrate from day one, because peop…

Awesome interview on the complexity of building modern circuit boards on @tbpn with @davideasnaghi from @diodeinc yesterday. Super important company with great founders (Davide and Lenny!) that we @a16z are excited to be backing.

We’re shifting from an oil-powered world into a mineral-driven one. @tbc415 joins @espricewright and me on the @a16z podcast to break down what this moment means for mining, and how @MarianaMinerals is pulling the industry into the future ⛏️

.@diodeinc is using AI to design circuit boards, simplifying messy, slow workflows. We’re excited to invest in Diode to scale manufacturing of hardtech in the US. Circuit boards are in every smartphone, medical device, and fighter jet. Better circuit design means more of the tech we rely on. None of the above should be taken as investment advice or an advertisement for investment services; please see for more information. For a full list of portfolio companies, visit

IN NEWS: @diodeinc raises $11.4M Series A round led by @a16z to accelerate the design of circuit boards. A moderate‑complexity board takes months to design using legacy design tools. @davideasnaghi (Founder & CEO) on how they're rewriting the PCB playbook: “Our goal is basically to democratize the way that we currently build circuit boards and allow … from startups to large enterprises to take advantage of a very high‑end type of workflow." "The only way we could think about how to do it is to teach large language models who actually generate schematics." "We use code to build our circuit boards … Circuit boards are very visual. You can think about them almost as Figma, while what we do is more like web design ,  CSS and code that then gets rendered into an actual circuit board.” Diode designs, validates, and manufactures custom circuit boards with generative AI.

We @a16z are excited to announce our Series A investment in @diodeinc, partnering with @davideasnaghi and @lennykhazan as they transform the way circuit boards are designed and manufactured in the US.  Whether it’s robots, drones, autonomous systems, or consumer products, two things matter most in today’s hardware landscape: speed of iteration and design for manufacturability.  The US answer to Shenzhen will be powered by AI, and will have @diodeinc inside!