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. @speedrun Demo Day was a movie. Founders crushed it, the team crushed it, the vibes were immaculate.
Feeling proud and tired and happy, but more importantly grateful to get to work alongside the best team in the biz.
Feeling proud and tired and happy, but more importantly grateful to get to work alongside the best team in the biz.
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the only times i've ever seen retention meaningfully move was with the introducton of a social feature. when retention is baked so deeply into the core product the only way to move retention is to change from the core experience as the product to the userbase as the product
The frustrating thing about working in consumer is that you're always 1 a/b test away from massively improving any metric (except for retention)
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12 hours left. I'm reviewing applications live as they roll in. Let's get it
Last call for SR008.
apply for speedrun if you want to get access to:
> up to $1M in funding
> over $10M in startup credits
> intros to 150+ C-suite execs from the Fortune 500 & the a16z portfolio, plus a full day demoing live to buyers at AI Faire
> hiring support through our Talent Network, with 171K+ engineers, designers & product people and $0 in fees
> office access at our new North Beach HQ
> a 40-person team helping with GTM, talent, marketing & fundraising.
Mega recap of helpful resources below 👇
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Don't Build Alone
As a @speedrun partner, some of my favorite conversations with founders starts with: “here's a thing i'm stuck on...”
Maybe that thing is pricing. Maybe a promising customer has gone quiet. Maybe the founders are hiring their first salesperson and trying to oks like.
Working these things through with founders is one of my favorite things about this job.
At Speedrun, we want to be your earliest backers and work alongside you through those decisions. You get our time, our attention, and a team of world class operators who can help you work through what’s blocking you.
Building something great is hard - don't feel like you have to do it alone. Let us work with and support you on the journey ahead.
SR008 applications close this Sunday at midnight.
If you’re building, we'd love to hear from you. Application link below
As a @speedrun partner, some of my favorite conversations with founders starts with: “here's a thing i'm stuck on...”
Maybe that thing is pricing. Maybe a promising customer has gone quiet. Maybe the founders are hiring their first salesperson and trying to oks like.
Working these things through with founders is one of my favorite things about this job.
At Speedrun, we want to be your earliest backers and work alongside you through those decisions. You get our time, our attention, and a team of world class operators who can help you work through what’s blocking you.
Building something great is hard - don't feel like you have to do it alone. Let us work with and support you on the journey ahead.
SR008 applications close this Sunday at midnight.
If you’re building, we'd love to hear from you. Application link below
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every @speedrun application season leaves me deeply inspired. so many smart, ambitious people building companies solving hard, interesting problems that will benefit the world
if you're building, we'd love to support you. you have until the end of the weekend to apply
if you're building, we'd love to support you. you have until the end of the weekend to apply
hey all - update for SR008:
It's now the FINAL weekend to apply for our next residency in San Francisco. Applications close this Sunday, Nov 1 at 11:59 PM PT.
Here's the link:
speedrun.a16z.com/apply
How it works:
- you apply
- we review, reach out to get introduced, etc
- if hake and sign
- we wire our investment right away!
- plus you get access to >$10M in credits right away
- you'll onboard + start working with us immediately, have access to working out of our SF offices, etc
The official residency starts Feb 2027 where we'll have speakers, office hours, and much more. I plan to be on site and look forward to meeting many of you
You might ask- who's the best fit for this? We want to talk to you as early as possible, and that means:
- no company yet
- no deck
- no huge insight tweet thread
- sometimes not even fully committed yet
You don't need the perfect idea. We can start working together when you're iterating and getting the idea off the ground. That's the whole point of speedrun - it's our way of backing you from Day 0.
More official stuff below:
- Deadline is this Sunday, Nov 1 at 11:59 PM PT (this weekend!)
- SR008 runs Feb 1 through April 18, 2027 in San Francisco -- twelve weeks of firesides, office hours, and sessions, closing out with Demo Day on April 13 in front of thousands of investors
- Capital: up to $1M with a two-week close target, plus $10M+ in credits from 200+ partners
- Customers: SR Insiders gets you in front of 10,000+ buyers and operators, including 150+ C-suite execs, plus a full day of live demos at AI Faire
- Talent: our Talent Network of 171,000+ engineers, designers, and product people. 230+ hires so far, $0 in fees. Plus visa, banking, and housing help if you're coming from abroad
- A team of ~40 battle-tested investors and operators who help cover your gaps without adding headcount -- GTM, marketing, brand, talent, fundraising, and more
- a16z speedrun is super selective -- fewer than 0.4% of applicants get in. You'll join a tight-knit community of founders from 20+ countries who stay involved as speakers, advisors, and often each other's first customers
- Still in school or still finding your idea/team? Check out the alpha fellowship too -- up to $250K for students, recent grads, and dropouts
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unreal... i had ms. frizzle growing up and my kids will have the actual magic schoolbus
This is Genie 4, our most realistic and interactive world model yet. 🌐
Explore dynamic environments in real time to see how the scene responds, sounds, and how the people in it move, react, and speak.
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Josh Lu retweeted
AI slop isn't just tacky and uninspired. It can get you sued.
Generating fake AI faces that resemble real people, or using someone's likeness without permission, is creating new legal and reputational risks for brands.
So we built @mirrormirror_ai as part of a16z @speedrun, a s can digitally book real models and creators to generate AI content using their likeness, with their permission.
Brands browse and book identity-verified talent, agree on usage rights, and generate content within those terms. Every approved image comes with a signed license and embedded provenance.
We're seeing brands produce lookbooks and campaign visuals up to 10x faster, with up to 90% cost savings. Meanwhile, models and creators can earn additional income from their digital likeness without having to show up for another shoot.
Everyone is racing to make AI generation faster, cheaper, and more realistic. But there's still a huge missing piece: how do you license the rights to the people appearing in AI-generated content at scale?
That's why I'm excited about what we're building. Not just another AI generator, but the licensing and rights infrastructure for AI-generated content.
mirrormirrorai.com
Generating fake AI faces that resemble real people, or using someone's likeness without permission, is creating new legal and reputational risks for brands.
So we built @mirrormirror_ai as part of a16z @speedrun, a s can digitally book real models and creators to generate AI content using their likeness, with their permission.
Brands browse and book identity-verified talent, agree on usage rights, and generate content within those terms. Every approved image comes with a signed license and embedded provenance.
We're seeing brands produce lookbooks and campaign visuals up to 10x faster, with up to 90% cost savings. Meanwhile, models and creators can earn additional income from their digital likeness without having to show up for another shoot.
Everyone is racing to make AI generation faster, cheaper, and more realistic. But there's still a huge missing piece: how do you license the rights to the people appearing in AI-generated content at scale?
That's why I'm excited about what we're building. Not just another AI generator, but the licensing and rights infrastructure for AI-generated content.
mirrormirrorai.com
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Despite having experienced every cohort so far, it always surprises me just how much a driven, ambitious team can get done in 12 weeks.
I've seen companies go from a standing start to putting a real dent in the world. I've seen teams multiply in size, gobbling S tier people along the way and turning their company into a gravity well for talent. I've seen revenue/usage/DAU go parabolic
SR008 applications are officially open. Show us what you'll be able to do in 12 weeks. It's time to apply (link below)
I've seen companies go from a standing start to putting a real dent in the world. I've seen teams multiply in size, gobbling S tier people along the way and turning their company into a gravity well for talent. I've seen revenue/usage/DAU go parabolic
SR008 applications are officially open. Show us what you'll be able to do in 12 weeks. It's time to apply (link below)
SR008 APPS ARE OPEN. Up to $1M + $10M+ in credits. 12 weeks in SF, Feb through April. Built to help you land capital, customers and talent. Apply by Nov 1: speedrun.a16z.com/apply
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Few hours left to apply to @speedrun Alpha. I have been reviewing applications and interviewing candidates and am so impressed this far.
FINAL day to apply for the Speedrun Alpha fellowship
speedrun.a16z.com/alpha
For students / dropouts / recent grads: we want to invest up to $250k. Come work out of our SF offices and explore ideas, find a cofounder, etc.
More details:
Start building. We back you pre-entity, pre-idea, pre-team. Apply as an individual. If you already know who you want to build with, great. Have each person apply separately and note who you’re building with.
- Up to $250K investment
- Automatic final interview for speedrun, up to $1M investment
- $1M in credits across AWS, GPC, Azure, Open AI, Anthropic, Cursor and many more.
- Coworking space at the speedrun office throughout the fellowship
- Office hours and hosted sessions with speedrun partners
- 8-week, in-person experience (January 11 – March 5)
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the horizontal scaling law money slides. congrats to @BanburyRoadAI on their release of Kardashev-0.7!
Introducing Kardashev-0.7, the world’s first trained swarm made of 32 distinct models
Trained with RL for Population Scaling (RLPS), 32 models organically develop specialization & complementary capabilities, delivering frontier performance at:
- 0.007x ~ 0.02x of the inference costd memory
Civilization advances through different minds specializing and working together. We’re bringing that principle into AI
@BanburyRoadAI, we’re scaling intelligence by model count, toward civilizations of models that learn to build on one another
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The first alpha cohort was one of the densest collections of intensely smart and ambitious people I’ve gotten to work with. Come be a part of the next one. Applications close this week
final week to apply to Speedrun Alpha fellowship! up to $250k investment in technical students + recent grads who want to build. apps close this sunday. 👀 👀 👀
apply: alpha.a16z.com
details below 👇
–
alpha is our fellowship for technical students and recent grads ing. we have two tracks:
for future founders:
- up to $250K investment
- $1M+ in credits across AWS, GCP, Azure, OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor and more
- office hours and fireside chats with speedrun partners
- 8 weeks in person in SF (jan 11 – mar 5)
if you'd rather get experience before starting a company, apply to our talent track:
- intros to speedrun portfolio companies to find your mutual fit
- office hours and fireside chats with speedrun partners
- 4 weeks in person in SF (feb 8 – mar 5)
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Huge congrats to the Kanu team on the round. Very strong partners for a very strong team bringing usable, useful, high-context AI to enterprises
We raised $11.7M to bring AGI to enterprise.
Every enterprise has spent decades building up knowledge.
Some of it lives in Salesforce, SharePoint, Outlook, spreadsheets, PDFs, maps and databases.
But a huge amount of it just lives in people's heads.
Your best salesperson h on price.
Your COO remembers why you made a decision three years ago.
Someone on your team can look at a number and immediately say, "That doesn't look right."
Software has the data, and people know what to do with it.
I think that line is about to disappear.
Kanu understands your company well enough to know what has happened before, how your team thinks, what is changing right now, and what might be worth doing next.
Not because you sat down and programmed all of it. Because Kanu learned by working alongside your team.
Imagine Daniel joins your company tomorrow.
He's working on his first deal and Kanu tells him:
"This customer has historically been pretty flexible on price. I'd start higher on the first offer. Here's what happened the last few times."
Daniel never searched for that.
He didn't even know there was something to search for.
Kanu just knew it would be useful.
That's the part I'm most excited about.
When someone on your team corrects Kanu, it learns.
When something changes in the market, it notices.
When one person figures out a better way to do something, everyone else should be able to benefit from it.
And none of this should require your employees to become AI experts.
They shouldn't have to spend their day building agents, writing skills or figuring out which model to use.
Your company shouldn't have to learn how to use AI.
AI should learn how your company works.
We're already seeing the beginning of this. For one national customer, work that used to take weeks now takes minutes.
Our $11.7M seed round was led by Trilogy Equity Partners, with participation from a16z @speedrun, BMW i Ventures, @Accel and more.
A huge thank you to our team, customers, investors and everyone who believed in us early.
I couldn't be more excited about what comes next.
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If anyone ever needs an ACL prehab routine and has a tonal hit me up I’ve got you
I tore my ACL and now need surgery. I spent the day using Muse to plan for my upcoming rehab and it was surprisingly delightful
It ingested all the documentation from my surgeon and sports specialist, processed a bunch of rehab literature, and built me a custom plan for pre-surgery and the long rehab months after. It did research and bought me a stationary bike. It converted all my PT lifts/stretches/work into matching exercises on my @tonal and created custom workouts in the app
My knee is shot but honestly my mood is not bad knowing I've got a good plan ahead of me
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