How do you get funded by a16z?

Who a16z actually is

Andreessen Horowitz was founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen, who built the Mosaic and Netscape browsers, and Ben Horowitz, former CEO of LoudCloud. In under a decade it became the most powerful venture firm in Silicon Valley. In January 2026 it raised $15 billion across five new funds, over 18% of all US venture capital allocated in 2025, taking total assets past $90 billion.

The firm operates less like a traditional VC and more like a talent agency. Of roughly 600 employees, only about 10% sit on the investment team. The rest are operators, recruiters, marketers, business development and policy people who exist to grow portfolio companies. Their current thesis is that AI is eating software: AI-native companies will replace the previous generation of software companies, and the vast majority of their deployment follows that bet.

What a16z invests in, and how big the cheques are

The January 2026 raise split into a $6.75B growth fund, $1.7B for AI applications, $1.7B for infrastructure, $1.18B for American Dynamism (defence and industrial), $700M for bio and health, and $3B for other venture strategies. Average cheque sizes run roughly $17.6M at seed, $24M at Series A, and $119M at Series B. Coinbase shows the upside they underwrite for: Chris Dixon led a $25M investment in 2013, and the position returned roughly $7B, a 60x.

What Speedrun is, and who it suits

Speedrun is a16z's accelerator and the most accessible entry point for early-stage founders. It invests up to $1M per company ($500K upfront for 10%, with another $500K reserved for your next round), takes 60 to 70 companies per cohort, runs twice a year, and has funded 120+ startups with over $100M since 2023. It is more expensive than YC, which takes 7% for $500K, but it comes with direct access to the 600-person platform. Acceptance is roughly 60 from thousands of applicants, so a sharp narrative still decides who gets in.

Why warm introductions dominate

a16z receives thousands of inbound applications a year and made 175 investments in 2025. The mathematics of that ratio mean partners lean heavily on referrals from people they trust: portfolio founders, angels, operators, and other investors. A warm introduction is not a formality. It answers the first question any investor asks silently, which is why this founder and why now, before you say a word. If your plan is a cold email to a general inbox, you are competing against the referral pipeline with none of its advantages.

What they look for, in their own words

Marc Andreessen describes the strategy as elephant hunting: they want outcomes big enough to return multi-billion-dollar funds. In practice that means a market thesis big enough to matter at $90B scale, a founder with an earned insight into the problem, and evidence the company can absorb the full weight of their platform. When a16z evaluates you, they are asking whether they can deploy the whole machine behind you, so a founder who treats the raise as a partnership reads very differently from one who treats it as a transaction.

One more thing worth knowing before any Tier 1 pitch: the partner who champions you has to write an internal paper defending the deal. Seeing the memo investors write about you behind closed doors changes how you prepare.

Gian Seehra Ex-Octopus Ventures, part of deploying $200M as a VC. 3x founder, raised $16M. Has coached 120+ founders who have raised $250M+ collectively.