AI Apps + Global Investor @a16z | Future King of šøš», First of His Name | God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise - 1 Cor. 1:27
NYC
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Gabriel Vasquez retweeted
The team at @a16z are looking to do more deals in Europe.
Everyone knows that @GEVS94 is bullish on the continent.
But now Anish Acharya (@illscience) has also come out in support for European Tech:
āThe opportunity for Europe is to embrace what's unique about Europe, and it feels like that's what this generation of really good European [companies] are doing"
"they're unapologetically European and going after markets and opportunities where they have a right to win,ā
@a16z recently invested alongside @sarahdrinkwater, @MattEvantic and others in Ethos (@DJ_Mankowitz).
The firm has also invested in Mistral and Revolut.
NICE.
Full piece in @Siftedeu below.
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The gap between SF and the rest of the world has never been wider.
If you donāt spend time here, prepare for a rude awakening.
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Anyone can get my friendās real SSN from Claude
I'm Terrified of my data in training sets. Emails in databases. iMessages harvested. Cant trust the cloud as AI is crazy good at hacking
So I built Underdog for myself: on-device AI OS. Capable & 100% local. now my friends love it
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Gabriel Vasquez retweeted
Introducing Boski, the personal agent that understands your goals and works 24/7 to get things done for you.
Compared to other agents, we are building Boski to be maximally proactive, focused on getting to know you and achieving your goals.
You donāt have to connect your calendar, email, or give Boski any of your personal data. Just like your best friend doesnāt need to see your inbox, Boski executes on your goals without it.
When you start using Boski, it will attempt to move you a step forward with your most ambitious goals every day. It will literally find you a girlfriend.
Weāve been working together with @glica_lukasz @radek_baczynski @futurammi @wiktorklu for 3 months. We first launched Boski 2 months ago and weāve been in private beta since then. Now, Boski is open to everyone.
Boski in the future will be 100% free, but for now we are launching with an experimental pricing of $5/week. This will help us protect against spammers and onboard high quality people first as we scale compute
Please check it out! We are running user interviews with every single new user right now
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Letās go!
Excited to announce @a16z is leading Highstock's Series A!
Highstock is an AI-powered marketplace tackling a trillion-dollar problem for consumer brands - excess inventory.
They have $1B+ in product listed from 100+ major brands, who use Highstock to reach vetted buyers š
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Our analysis suggests that AI has so far created around 1m new jobs in America. We explain how the technology has created a hiring boom economist.com/finance-and-ecā¦
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El Salvador is just getting started.
Opportunities + Hard Work
āResults in reading, mathematics and science were above the national average and comparable to the average results in Germany and Sweden.ā
These are the results of our pilot program, which includes AI tutors and has been running in 171 public schools for just over a year.
It was evaluated by PISA for Schools in June of this year. Since then, it has already expanded to more than 1,000 schools, and within 18 months, it will be in every public school in our country.
In a few years, El Salvador will inspire the world.
Security was just the beginning šøš»
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šÆ!!
0ā1 is hard.
People will open source you. Thought bois will elegantly pick apart your product choices. Poasters will say nobody will ever use it, but also that itās a commodity. That youāre the symbol of the top. That youāre cooked cooked cooked.
Until youāre inevitable. Then the idea was obviously good to anyone with eyes.
Fuck em and keep shipping. Coming up with one great idea means you can come up with the next thousand, while the replicators / NPCs are still struggling to copy your first.
And if youāre a mad observer, the best revenge is building something betterānot extinguishing the flame of genuine new thinking, product craft, and the beginning of a new cycle for consumer software.
Build mad. Build happy. Just build.
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Gabriel Vasquez retweeted
no better day than the day u get ur film developed
š
@santiaghini @ernesto_nam @GEVS94 @sdand @selenxsun @zhennydez @mdigi14
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I was obsessed with @MichaelOvitz after reading his book, and I thought there was an opportunity to become an agent for founders, much like movie stars and directors have agents.
You could get to know founders deeply by helping make both their personal and professional lives better.
So I started cold calling founders and offering to help. I would have weekly calls with them and try to help with whatever was on their minds.
One of the founder of this story was @mejiasebas, founder of Rappi and Tako.
"When I started, I wasn't an investor at a16z. I was in a back-office role, but I wanted to build my network."
@a16z Investment Partner @GEVS94 says he broke into venture by relentlessly helping founders before he was even an investor:
"I used to call unicorn founders in Latin America and say, 'I work at a16z. I'm not an investor, but I'd love to help.'"
"One of the founders who took my call was building a company that eventually reached around a $5 billion valuation."
"I was relentless. I'd schedule a weekly call with him and bring ideas from deals we were seeing in the US that he could replicate in Latin America."
"Eventually, I was able to introduce him to who became his co-founder. They started a company called Taco, we did the seed, and they've gone on to raise more capital and do really well."
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Gabriel Vasquez retweeted
I like this. A "Borderless Founder" understands that in practice borders matter more than ever.
Founders who learn to build across countries early will have an advantage. Specifically learning how to operate outside your home market before your competitors is key. This was our head start as an Aussie team.
The internet made the world more global and AI may make it far more productive but neither will repeal the state. Founders who develop a healthy respect for sovereign borders and learn to build across them rather than pretend they donāt exist will have an edge.
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Over 40% of the a16z Apps team's investments over the last two years went to international founders. Half are headquartered outside the US.
Angela Strange and Gabriel Vasquez own the bet behind that number, a bet that the best founders can come from anywhere. In Poland, ElevenLabs became the national AI champion. In Spain, Supersonik landed Salesforce as its first design partner. In Colombia, Angela's first check went to Addi, which now serves a quarter of the country and recruits Capital One's best credit talent to BogotĆ”.
In this episode, they sit down to discuss the playbook: why AI opens every market but concentrates the epicenter in the Bay Area, and why country diasporas beat elite alumni networks.
00:00 Intro
00:54 From a WhatsApp group to a global strategy
05:29 Why AI pulls founders to the Bay Area
10:29 Defining the borderless founder
12:29 How diaspora networks help companies scale
18:11 The three advantages of borderless founders
22:36 Preferential attachment across borders
25:11 The bridge to Silicon Valley works both ways
27:11 Mapping and building global ecosystems
33:15 Backing repeat founders
40:31 Silicon Valley speed and global ambition
piped.video/watch?v=0t3TpJXaā¦
@astrange @GEVS94 @VirtualElena
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Gabriel Vasquez retweeted
a16z is the best at creating opportunities. As a founder, your job is to grab them and execute.
A couple of years ago, @GEVS94 invited me on a Monday to a Borderless Founders dinner in NY that Wednesday, where Iād meet Guillermo Rauch (Vercel). I was in Barcelona. I booked a flight that day and showed up.
Iāve now been to these dinners in SF, NY and London. Serendipity is a big part of success, and @GEVS94 and @astrange create a lot of it for founders willing to go find it.
Iām sure weāll see generational companies come out of these dinners. Couldnāt be happier to have @a16z as an investor in Supersonik.
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