Earlier this month, NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a 1-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI in public schools through 8th grade.
Gagan Biyani (@gaganbiyani) says Horowitz Andreessen Academy is taking the opposite approach:
“A school that embraces AI is a school that embraces reality and the future. AI is here, and it's coming. It's coming even stronger than it is today.”
“It doesn't matter that most of their peers are AI doomers. We want the AI boomers. We want folks who are looking for an AI optimistic future.”
“We are definitely not going to ban it. We are going to completely embrace it. In fact, not only are we going to embrace it, we're going to give them more credits and money so that they can go and build with AI.”
“We're going to teach them how to leverage AI in a way that is positive for creating things, because that's what AI allows you to do.”
BREAKING: a16z Launches The Horowitz Andreessen Academy with $42M in Funding
Yes, a school.
The Academy is an unaccredited, residential alternative to a 4-year degree in San Francisco, led by Founder & CEO Gagan Biyani (@gaganbiyani) (Udemy, Maven).
Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) & Erik Torenberg (@eriktorenberg) are on the board. Investors include Adam D'Angelo, Tobi Lütke, Tony Xu, Fidji Simo & Shyam Sankar.
Applications open today for a Founding Class of roughly 50 students, starting Fall 2027. 1 year, no tuition, admitted on proof of work.
Anthropic, Anduril, Coinbase, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit & Stripe are Founding Partners, with 30+ hiring partners behind them.
We cover:
› The $42M raise and the runway behind it
› Portfolios, interviews and IQ testing in admissions
› 75% to 80% project time and weekly pod check-ins
› Tuition, partnerships and equity as the 3 revenue lines
› Why the Academy is telling fundable 17-year-olds to wait
"The big difference between going to the academy and going to college is we are not gonna prioritize your grades. We're gonna prioritize proof of work."
𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒
(00:00) Gagan Biyani, Founder & CEO of Horowitz Andreessen Academy
(01:01) Why this Academy is different from college
(04:44) Started his first company at age 13
(08:30) Building a school for Silicon Valley
(11:55) Raising $40M for a School
(14:06) "You Did What?" - Proof of work over grades
(19:08) Should young builders really start companies?
(22:37) Why this is different from YC and fellowships
(27:35) The Academy is for young builders
(31:33) Why schools need to embrace AI
(37:18) How AI is changing education
(44:17) What an AI-native curriculum looks like
(48:51) Why high-agency students struggle in college
(53:12) Why the best builders zigzag
(1:02:19) Why you should apply even if you don't get in
(1:04:36) Building a supportive environment for young builders
(1:08:54) What the Academy program looks like
(1:10:44) Why the Academy is in San Francisco
(1:11:19) The people who shaped Gagan
(1:14:41) Favorite book!
9
5
68
9,198
