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For over a 12 months, Andreessen Horowitz has quietly piloted its personal tackle an accelerator for early-stage entrepreneurs, and immediately, the agency introduced this system’s official debut.
In trade for an unannounced share of possession, “a16z START” will supply early-stage founders as much as $1 million in enterprise capital. The checks are backed by a $400 million seed fund, which closed in August 2021.
The remote-first program will settle for founders on a rolling foundation and needs to attach of us with companions for recommendation, potential prospects or traders, and naturally, different entrepreneurs.
On the comparatively temporary software type for START, a16z names six classes — American dynamism, shopper, enterprise, fintech, video games or different. Funding phrases might be mentioned with remaining candidates, the shape says.
This program extends Andreessen Horowitz’s stamp of approval to the earliest step of an entrepreneur’s journey: the thought stage, or the pre-quitting-your-day-job a part of startup life. The corporate has invested in solo founders earlier than their firms ever existed, however this program seems to be a extra formal effort to convey of us into entrepreneurship. Notably, there is no such thing as a point out of a variety mandate or focus.
The checklist of early members on this program reveals that a16z is actually inquisitive about worldwide entrepreneurs, much like how Y Combinator has more and more grown its international presence over the previous few years. A few of START’s first entrepreneurs embody executives from Rappi, a Colombian unicorn.
TechCrunch reached out to Bryan Kim and Anne Lee Skates, the 2 companions operating this system, for remark, however has not but heard again. Till then, let’s stroll via my greatest query for the duo: Why does a16z want its personal Y Combinator?
I do know that it’s not fully honest to check the 2 establishments past their give attention to empowering early-stage founders with capital, networks and recommendation in trade for fairness. The truth is, over time, a16z has typically led a number of the buzziest rounds popping out of Y Combinator, together with Tandem, Queenly and Contra — basically sourcing deal movement from the accelerator.
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