Alex Rampell

Silicon Valley entrepreneur (cofounder@ TrialPay, Yub, Affirm, Point, TXN), investor (General Partner @a16z), husband, father and sarcast (one who is sarcastic)

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

“Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts”
-Richard Feynman (1966)

https://t.co/wRxMj7kd7b

[steijnpelle @steijnpelle]

Small businesses have been overlooked. There is a great AI company to be built.

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

@MBTannenbaum 💪🏻

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

@lessin Boring and Space are perfect complements

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

@alexrkonrad @a16z @LassieAI @TownAI Busy day!

[a16z @a16z]

We’re thrilled to lead Lassie’s Series A.

Most small businesses are run by reluctant operators. Owners set out to serve their customers and communities but end up buried in back-office work.

Dental practices are a perfect example. Dentists train to care for patients, but much of their time is consumed by insurance claims, payment reconciliation, staffing, and cash flow.

Lassie is building AI that runs small businesses, starting with dental practices.

Before writing a line of code, Cofounders Steijn Pelle and Frédéric Renken spent months working inside a dental office, processing payments by hand to deeply understand the workflow.

Lassie is not a copilot that creates more work for the practice to review. It does the work.

We’re excited to partner with @steijnpelle, @fredericrenken, and the @lassieai team as they build toward the small business that runs itself.

By @arampell and @omooretweets

[Justine Moore @venturetwins]

Announcing @a16z's investment in Town 🎉

It's an AI assistant that truly knows you.

Since I joined Town a few months ago, it's run my work life - emails, to-do lists, meeting prep, reminders.

It can actually DO things for you and has full context.
https://t.co/G2POdQYIpW

[Alex Konrad @alexrkonrad]

EXCLUSIVE: Lassie's AI agent helps dentists save hours of busywork. Now it's raised $35M from a16z.

It started when CEO @steijnpelle heard his own dentist complain about a sea of paperwork -- then embedded in his practice to learn first-hand.

My @UpstartsMediaCo exclusive 👀

[Jean-Denis Greze 💡 @jgreze]

Today, we’re launching @TownAI: the AI assistant that learns you.

We’re coming out of beta with a $55M Series A led by @ARampell at @a16z, with participation from @KirstenGreen at @forerunnervc and continued support from @firstround, @altcap, and @conviction.

Right now, getting real value from AI means prompting, configuring, building workflows, managing agents.

We think that’s backwards.

The future of AI is a companion that already knows you and how you work. Town connects across your inbox, calendar, Slack, docs, messages, and workflows to understand what you need, then starts doing the work with you.

Drafting. Scheduling. Project tracking. Follow-ups. Context gathering. Multi-step tasks. And it only acts when you say so.

All adapting to your voice, priorities, routines, and relationships over time.

Your Townie is the AI assistant you actually need.

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

@P33RL3SS That’s an incredibly stupid example. Electromagnetic spectrum is fundamentally a public good (in an economics sense). Anyone can produce them (identically! unlike AI models!) which requires central administration to ensure they don’t interfere

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

Imagine telling someone in 1990, when McDonald's finally opened in the USSR (w/ 50% ownership by Soviets):

“The Soviet Union will collapse, China will embrace markets, and an American senator will propose confiscating 50% of the country’s most important technology companies.”

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

I will soon be introducing a bill to give the public a 50% ownership stake in the largest AI companies in America.

This would guarantee that the trillions created by AI are used to improve the lives of all of us — and block oligarch decisions that harm the American people.

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

@wholemars and they'll participate based on the massive taxes paid from the massive capital gains realized!

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

@moseskagan This strain of communism is so common

They think Elon just discovered a mine of Teslas in California (why it was founded here) and just pulls them out of the mine

The mine was already filled with Teslas waiting to be extracted

And if he goes ANYONE can just extract them

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

@moseskagan This strain of communism is so common

They think Elon just discovered a mine of Teslas in California (why it was founded here) and just pulls them out of the mine

The mine was already filled with Teslas waiting to be extracted

And if he goes ANYONE can just extract them

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

What he said! @jackiereses is incredible

[Gokul Rajaram @gokulr]

Jackie Reses is one of the best leaders (and most quotable people!) I’ve had the privilege of working with. Honored to have been a supporter from Day 1 of this iconic founder and company.

[Neetu Arnold @neetu_arnold]

University of California STEM professors want standardized tests back due to severe math deficiencies among students:

“We now observe preparation gaps so severe that instructors must reteach middle school mathematics”

“The current admissions metric, based primarily on GPA & essays, can no longer reliably distinguish readiness for university-level STEM majors in an era of severe grade inflation & AI assisted application essays”

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

@gabriel_zucman This is profoundly dishonest work, reframing tax against a denominator of wealth when it does not and has not worked that way AND WEALTH PLUNGES TOO. You know this, of course, but are too committed to your communist outcome, laws and facts be damned.

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

My partner @davidu is a superstar and always has been. So privileged to work with him.

[Arena Magazine @arenamagdotcom]

"The internet was the first time in my life where I felt like, if you had an idea, you could make it a reality. It's similar now with AI — for people that are not technical, all they need now is an idea and the agency, and they can turn an idea into reality."

In the latest installment of Principals, @carsonjbecker sits down with @a16z General Partner @davidu to talk defense procurement, cybersecurity, and rebuilding the American industrial base. Read the full interview at @arenamagdotcom

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

@futurenomics @Danhightower You can’t control it, it has to be passive, and can’t be tied to your employment or be subject to vesting (normally if you found a VC backed company, you own the shares immediately but they’re subject to *repurchase* and vesting just erodes the repurchase right)

[Alex Rampell @arampell]

@JTLonsdale @tweetoferic Eric is awesome — Mazal tov!