In a new episode of In the Vault, a16z General Partner Angela Strange talks with Jeff Sloan, former CEO of Global Payments, about how he was early to spot significant industry trends, how to make bets that move an organization, and the sea change that AI represents for the financial services industry. 0-1:40 Intro1:40-8:15 Joining Global Payments8:15-19:30 Placing many bets19:30-26:10 Deal integration and scale advantage26:10-31:35 GenAI sea change31:35-32:19 Outro
In a new episode of In the Vault, a16z General Partner David Haber talks with Marty Chavez, a partner and vice chairman of Sixth Street Partners, about the foundational role he’s had in merging technology and finance throughout his career, and the magical promises and regulatory pitfalls of AI. 0-1:30 Intro1:30-12:50 Marty's history and transition to Wall Street12:50-20:50 Financial Crisis and SecDB20:50-32:10 GenAI's impact32:10-36:15 AI and biotech36:15-37:06 Outro
In a new episode of In the Vault, a16z General Partner David Haber talks with Marco Argenti, the chief information officer at Goldman Sachs, about bringing fintech processes into financial services, turning developers into clients, and how AI is a major inflection point in the history of technology.0-1:30 Intro1:30-12:05 From tech to financial services12:05-17:30 Turning developers into clients17:30-23:50 GenAI and productivity23:50-28:50 The future of financial services28:50-29:31 Outro
In this SaaS era, partnering with no one means competing with everyone. How the best companies take advantage of ecosystem-led growth—or where they sit in the SaaS ecosystem to improve acquisition, expansion, and access to new markets, as discussed by a16z general partner Sarah Wang and Crossbeam CEO Bob Moore.[00:01:43] The birth of ecosystem-led growth[00:05:12] The data revolution in partnerships[00:12:46] Integrating ecosystem-level GTM motions[00:16:29] Bob's founder history[00:24:30] Ecosystem-qualified leads and new opportunities[00:29:34] ELG as AI force multiplierFor a transcript of this episode of a16z Live!, click here.
CEO of Quora Adam D’Angelo discusses how building infrastructure for creators can democratize AI, in conversation with a16z’s David George. [01:07] Social networks as compliment to AI[03:59] Poe: bringing AI to the masses[05:51] The future of AI is multi-model and multimodal[08:11] Is the model the product?[11:31] Building AI infrastructure for creators[13:41] Navigating platform shifts[16:02] Sharing human- and computer-generated knowledge[17:43] Knowledge sharing on the internet[20:41] The benefits of scale for AI[21:59] Competing on scale or feature differentiation[25:01] Fault tolerance as a wedge for startupsThis conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, which features some of the most impactful builders in the field of AI discussing and debating where we are, where we’re going, and the big open questions in AI. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution.
Hiring the right executives at the right time is the key to scaling your company. But to many founders, the executive search and hiring process can feel like a black box. a16z talent partner Matt Oberhardt dives deep into the executive search process with Kelli Dragovich and Nolan Church on the HR Heretics podcast.[00:01:21] How a16z talent partners assess talent[00:03:42] Balancing internal and external roles[00:04:57] Measuring success in talent assessment[00:06:07] The MOC[00:10:29] Whiteboard sessions for assessing fit[00:13:10] Referencing as a continuous cycle[00:16:47] Putting negative references in context[00:20:25] Assessing personal growth vs. mistakes[00:21:50] Establishing trust with founders[00:25:03] Vetting EQ[00:26:53] Measuring success of what you can't control[00:28:43] Why hire veterans for startups[00:33:45] Talent landscape in 2024[00:35:20] Recruiting top talent in a tight market[00:38:42] Hiring the "operational glue"[00:39:36] The value of tough feedbackYou can read the key takeaways from this conversation, along with a transcript, here.
Respecting privacy and building trust with communities is essential to effectively integrate technology into public safety. a16z general partner David Ulevitch, Flock Safety’s Garrett Langley, and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill discuss how to build and implement products that communities can trust.[00:01:22] Flock Safety's impact on public safety[00:05:50] Building trust through tech[00:08:23] How Flock Safety builds its product roadmap[00:11:06] Drones as first responders[00:15:46] Data privacy and protection[00:19:05] How the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department rolls out new technology[00:21:11] AI, robots, and the future of tech in public safetyThis conversation was recorded at a16z’s 2023 LP Summit. To read a transcript of this talk, click here.
In this episode, a16z partner Seema Amble talks with Dimitri Dadiomov, the co-founder and CEO of payment operations platform Modern Treasury, about the challenges of creating a new category, hiring for marketing before you hire for sales, and why developing new features is similar to birding.0:00 - 1:20 Intro1:20 - 8:55 The founding of Modern Treasury8:55 - 15:28 First customers15:28 - 20:07 Building trust20:07 - 32:00 Creating a category32:00 - 35:28 Advice for founders/Outro
In this episode, a16z partner Seema Amble talks with Zach Perret, the co-founder and CEO of Plaid, about how Plaid built a community in the early days to acquire customers, how they tracked “free radicals,” and how to orient your first customers around speed. 0 - 1:09 Intro1:09 - 9:57 Plaid history9:57 - 16:39 First customers16:39 - 26:45 Pricing philosophy26:45 - 29:27 Boring as a brand29:27 - 33:01 Advice for founders/Outro
In this episode, a16z partner Seema Amble talks with the founder and current executive chairman of Marqeta Jason Gardner about what it means to be welded to your customer and how to expand in multiple verticals.0:00-1:10 Intro1:10-6:01 Marqeta's beginning6:01-9:15 First customers9:15-16:25 "Magic" product market fit16:25-24:58 Building customer relationships/Pricing24:58-32:18 Advice for founders
In a new episode of My First 16, a16z partner Seema Amble talks with co-founder and CEO of Pilot Waseem Daher on how he thought about the importance of charging, how secondary signals often matter in an area like accounting, and never stepping away from doing founder-led sales. 0:00 - 1:45 Intro1:45 - 6:36 Pilot's beginning6:36 - 13:25 First customers13:25 - 18:02 Pricing18:02 - 25:29 Building a GTM team25:29 - 27:58 Advice for founders/Outro
Sales wants more features. Product gets bogged down with one-off requests. Progress and growth grinds to a halt. It's a familiar story. How Segment turned the sales-product tension into a successful $3.2B acquisition, as told by the former CRO Joe Morrissey and former chief product development officer Tido Carriero.[00:01:29] Joe's start as CRO[00:03:40] The low point: annual planning[00:07:59] Building a more focused product roadmap[00:10:57] Why GTM feedback is essential to building great product[00:13:04] Identifying value drivers in 48 hours[00:19:11] How technical should sales be?[00:20:44] How annual planning changed day-to-day operations[00:22:57] Segment's Lighthouse program[00:24:54] Reorging to deliver on new product priorities[00:27:14] How engineering helped develop the product roadmap[00:29:18] Leading a platform initiativeThis conversation was recorded at ELC 2023. To read a transcript of this conversation, click here. For more about value-based selling and moving upmarket, check out Getting Ready to Move Upmarket and The Key to Selling in a Downturn. .
In a new episode of My First 16, a16z partner Seema Amble talks with co-founder and CEO of Mercury Immad Akhund about the idea of a “minimum delightful product” in fintech, doing the spreadsheet math on unit economics early on, and how to compete in a category already filled with incumbents. 0:00 - 1:28 Introduction1:28 - 9:14 History of Mercury9:14 - 19:07 Mercury's first customers19:07 - 22:15 Scaling up22:15 - 25:48 Pricing journey25:48 - 31:37 Lessons and advice
Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott, in conversation with a16z's Bob Swan, explains how AI copilots are keeping developers longer in a flow state and why AI copilots more broadly could be the start of an industrial revolution for knowledge work.[0:59] Microsoft's approach to AI[6:15] The next Industrial Revolution[10:47] Developer productivity & flow state[15:46] Reprogramming the American Dream[20:08] Advice to buildersThis conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a live event in San Francisco. The series features some of the most impactful builders in the field of AI discussing and debating where we are, where we’re going, and the big open questions in AI. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution.
As CTO of OpenAI, Mira Murati oversaw the development and release of GPT-4 and ChatGPT. Here she tells Martin Casado the story behind the release of ChatGPT—and what it tells us about the future of AI and human-machine interactions. [0:59] Mira's background[4:55] Math, physics, and AI[7:31] Natural language interfaces[10:51] OpenAI Roadmap[17:47] Scaling Laws[20:48] One model to rule them all?[23:34] The next 5-10 yearsThis conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a live event in San Francisco. The series features some of the most impactful builders in the field of AI discussing and debating where we are, where we’re going, and the big open questions in AI. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution.
Will AI take all the design jobs? Dylan Field, founder and CEO of Figma, looks at the relationship between designers, developers, and AI, in conversation with a16z's David George. [0:58] Will AI replace designers?[4:13] Human vs. AI creativity[8:38] Applying AI to design[11:35] Startups vs. incumbentsThis conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a live event in San Francisco. The series features some of the most impactful builders in the field of AI discussing and debating where we are, where we’re going, and the big open questions in AI. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution.
Cofounder and CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei unpacks how far can scaling laws take us and how can AI be used to improve AI, in conversation with a16z's Anjney Midha. [0:59] Dario's background[2:45] GPT-2's emergent capabilities[5:16] Scaling laws[8:55] Why are there so many physicists in AI?[11:58] Constitutional AI[18:29] Anthropic's RoadmapThis conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a live event in San Francisco. The series features some of the most impactful builders in the field of AI discussing and debating where we are, where we’re going, and the big open questions in AI. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution.
Noam Shazeer, Character.ai CEO and cofounder, talks to a16z's Sarah Wang about the dawn of universally accessible intelligence, the compute it will take to power it, and his pursuit of AGI's first use...[0:59] Real Noam vs. AI Noam[6:14] Next unlocks[8:11] First use case for AGI[11:06] Building a full-stack LLM[13:33] Noam calculates global compute capacity[15:24] Universally accessible intelligenceThis conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a live event in San Francisco. The series features some of the most impactful builders in the field of AI discussing and debating where we are, where we’re going, and the big open questions in AI. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution.
Ali Ghodsi, CEO and cofounder of Databricks, and Ben Horowitz, cofounder of a16z, explain the data wars happening inside and outside enterprises and how they could impact the evolution of LLMs. [0:59] Why is it so hard for enterprises to adopt AI?[3:29] Data wars[4:49] Big vs. small LLMs[8:35] Finetuning[14:14] Open source AI[18:13] Benchmarks[19:51] Why Ali isn't afraid of AIThis conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a live event in San Francisco. The series features some of the most impactful builders in the field of AI discussing and debating where we are, where we’re going, and the big open questions in AI. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution.
Daphne Koller is the founder and CEO of insitro, a company using AI and machine learning to engineer drug discovery. In this conversation with a16z's Vijay Pande, she discusses how an LLM for cells could revolutionize drug discovery and how to bridge the technological and cultural divide between building with atoms and building with bits.[0:59] Why life sciences?[3:42] AI in the life sciences[7:20] LLM for cells[11:55] Engineering disease and drug discovery[13:51] Bits vs. atoms[17:55] The opportunity aheadThis conversation is part of our AI Revolution series, recorded August 2023 at a live event in San Francisco. The series features some of the most impactful builders in the field of AI discussing and debating where we are, where we’re going, and the big open questions in AI. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution.