Josh Lu

GM @speedrun. Investor at @a16z. Apply here:

You've probably played a game I worked on. Husband, girldad x2, cook, point guard

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

. @speedrun Demo Day was a movie. Founders crushed it, the team crushed it, the vibes were immaculate.

Feeling proud and tired and happy, but more importantly grateful to get to work alongside the best team in the biz.

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@RiotIksar well you’re taking them out for rest at some point anyway

in game 7 they took Wemby out for a minute and change, likely to just give him some instructions on coverages to avoid a 6th

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@lucky_z2 💯💯

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@lucky_z2 congrats!!

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

i would be upset if i knew a strategy/deck was put together and no AI was used. at the same time, there's something in the back of my head that tingles because it feels like i'm missing the human part of it

any doc meant for outside reading is to put my thoughts into the reader's head. i think an overtly AI thing severs that implicit idea

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

Claude Design has an unmistakable signature (style, color usage, artifact spacing, wording, etc.) that is showing up in like 80% of decks I'm seeing...

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@benwatley I’m not picky personally. Interactive can be cool if it’s not distracting. Moderately big “if”

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@thehenryinsf “Proof of effort”

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

i only care because i've seen it and can no longer unsee it. but it's also not just the visual style it's also the wording/phrasing

just like seeing some of the LLM text relics (em dashes etc) which are easily edited out i think not taking edit passes makes the deck seem needlessly low effort

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@winklerraphi i never said not to use claude design! nor am i saying the design is bad. i'm just saying it's now everywhere

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@buttons_txt this is true!

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@Andrey__HQ it's not so much me trying to get different designs but i see a lot of pitch decks and when you do it's hard not to see the claude design of it all

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@themichelinmin @SnappStats @speedrun @GoldHouseCo @DormRoomFund @ValiaVentures Congrats guys!! Glad to be working with you guys and all of the great partners you have alongside

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@gaby_goldberg welcome to the squad!

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@Chen @jennysduan that office is not going to hold this awesome team for long...

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@RKRigney @speedrun Final countdown!

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@JayRughani @CounselHealth @EvidenceOpen @TennrOfficial let’s bring the care closer to patients. love this

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@RKRigney spat out my coffee no notes

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

In the AI era, the next great software distribution company won’t look like an app store

For the last decade-plus, building a strong software business was mostly a game of scarcity. The hard part was assembling the capital, taste, engineering, and distribution to build one enduring app. The discovery systems we built matched that world: app stores, SEO, search bars, rankings, reviews, ads, marketplaces

AI has blown up these constraints

Soon, anyone will be able to generate software for anything: a workout injury, a work project, a personal workflow, a one-off analysis, a weird niche need only they have, maybe only in a single moment

Some apps will last forever, but most won’t. Many will exist for minutes or hours, and be created even faster

But just because software can be created at the speed of thought doesn’t mean everyone will become a developer. Most people won’t want to prompt, build, debug, deploy, or manage software. They’ll just want to be matched with the right tool for the job in front of them

The same technological wave enabling software creation at scale is also breaking software distribution at scale. Search assumes the best answer already exists somewhere. App stores assume software is something you browse, compare, install, and keep

In a world of personal software, the real question becomes: Who understands enough about me, or has earned enough trust from me, to know what software should exist for me right now?

The next great app distribution companies may look less like search engines and more like trusted relationships

Some will win by importing and processing personal context: your goals, constraints, calendar, body, files, workflows, history, collaborators, and intent. Others will win by exporting taste and trust: experts, creators, communities, agents, and brands that people rely on to decide what is worth using

Either way, the new gateway won’t be a search box or an app store shelf. It will be the layer that recommends, assembles, routes, and personalizes software at the moment of need

This is the new frontier: context, recommendation, trust, and distribution in the age of infinite software

If you’re building platforms or experiences for this future, we want to meet you. Apply to @speedrun. Applications for SR007 close this weekend

Application link below

[Josh Lu @JoshLu]

@llindsell yes! and the interesting question is how do you capture relationship trust at scale for software recommendation? the old "personalization" algos were so kludgy...