TK

CEO and Founder @Spektergames — 5x founder with multiple exits including @nWayGames, Pixelberry, Nurien, and IvyConnection. @a16z speedrun scout.

[TK @sumoru]

Spekter City Open Beta is live!

No web3 features yet, still focused on what matters most: fun gameplay and strong economy.
Max out your vehicles and expand your fleet now as those will matter when Web3 features go live at full launch.

See you inside: https://t.co/deZCesn5Po

[TK @sumoru]

Excited to announce Phantom League! High-stakes competitive mode for the top players in Spekter City. More information to roll out over the next few weeks.

[Spekter City @SpekterCity]

https://t.co/YIyPJTg2Pt

[Elad Gil @eladgil]

The events of the last 6 months in technology are arguable amongst the most important in human history

The tools now increasingly exist for recursive self improvement of models & agents

We are likely in very early lift off & exponential

Largely unnoticed outside of tech

[TK @sumoru]

@sujaldkl Good luck!!

[TK @sumoru]

Less than an hour remaining before the @speedrun SR007 application deadline! Good luck to everyone applying. DM / comment for any last min feedback / questions.

[TK @sumoru]

Congrats @ArtinBogdanov on shipping SUN Skill, an open-source Claude Code skill that saves AI-generated audio courses straight to your Spotify! @sunapp_ai is a fellow @speedrun company from SR006.

[Artin Bogdanov @ArtinBogdanov]

A few days ago, @GustavS showed save-to-spotify: a @Spotify skill that lets agents turn calendar, news, and Slack updates into private podcasts.

We loved the behavior and put a SUN-spin on it!☀️

And today we’re launching sun-to-spotify, an open-source Claude Code skill that turns a topic, prompt, or file into a ready-to-listen audio course you can save privately to Spotify.

My life right now has three tabs open at all times: startup, marriage, infant son. Along with your usual other 67 tabs of research, meeting notes, studies, Slack updates, product docs, or the thing everyone is suddenly posting about.

So, the point is the same: if it can become audio, it has a better chance of actually making it into your day.

Especially if it shows up right next to your workout playlist and suspiciously specific late-night podcasts👀

SUN for your next era of audio learning. Now, SUN for your Spotify library too.

Check out the demo 👇 and play around with the skill (link is in the comments).

Tell us what you created!

[TK @sumoru]

Disclosure: I worked closely with both @a_p_c_1120 and @spacero at my previous startups, and they are amazing operators and builders. They are going to be exceptional founders. I'm also an investor in aeren.

[TK @sumoru]

Congrats to @a_p_c_1120 and @spacero on finally unveiling @aeren_app. Your personal AI agent that will help you look younger and hotter! If you care about looksmaxxing per @im_roy_lee's suggestion, join the waitlist!

[Aeren @aeren_app]

Aesthetic decisions are expensive, personal, and often irreversible, yet the guidance is fragmented and just plain unreliable.

We're building AEREN to change that.

A personalized AI for aesthetics that proactively guides you from skincare to cosmetic surgery, powered by real outcomes from people like you.

Join the waitlist → https://t.co/qy1qY4vKjd

[TK @sumoru]

Great video @RKRigney!

[TK @sumoru]

Less than 48 hours left until the speedrun 007 application deadline.
Thanks to everyone who's been DMing me for referrals and scout checks. I've been getting hundreds of DMs and a few common mistakes I keep seeing:

1. When you send your company blurb, it should be one paragraph on what you are building, and another paragraph on you and your team. Both should be about equal length.

2. Investors spend less than a minute skimming your deck. Keep it clear, visual, and easy to digest. Avoid walls of text. Your core idea and traction should be understandable in less than a minute.

3. Your team slide is the most important slide in the deck. Brag about yourselves to the point of being uncomfortable. Quantify your achievements. Make it visual with logos of companies, products, brands, schools, exits, or anything else that help convey your awesomeness.

If you are thinking about applying, now is the time to do it. Send me a DM if you are a cracked team building something awesome and want to be referred / considered for a scout check. Good luck to all!

[Macy Mills @_CallMeMacy]

UPDATE: we've been hard at work to grow the total value of partner credits on our a16z @speedrun marketplace. We are now have over $7M in savings available to founders as soon as they get into the program!

Want in? This is your last weekend to apply. Don't miss your chance.

[TK @sumoru]

People are becoming increasingly comfortable sharing personal data with AI in exchange for better recommendations and outcomes. Personalized AI agents specialized in specific verticals, with deep access to user history, preferences, and intent data, have the potential to become incredibly powerful distribution platforms for those industries.

[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

[TK @sumoru]

@EmlynThompsonLA so good

[Paul Graham @paulg]

A friend's startup is growing at 93% a month. I pointed out that her net worth is also growing at 93% a month, and that she can thus feel, in her own life, the falsity of politicians' claim that you have to do bad things to get rich. They're just focusing on making users happy.

[TK @sumoru]

a16z speedrun applications close in just 5 days, on May 17th at 11:59pm PST. If you are applying or already applied and believe you're building something special, DM me what you're working on with a quick intro on the team. As a scout, I can refer founders directly to the speedrun team, and in some cases write a small investment check in < 24hrs if I see strong potential.

[TK @sumoru]

Whether you think AI will replace you, or empower you to become better and unlock more opportunities, you’re right. The people who fear AI and sit back will ultimately be replaced by those who harness it to become 10x more productive.

[Spekter Games @SpekterGames]

https://t.co/7vzXENJ3e8

[TK @sumoru]

@haileyhmt Congrats and good luck!

[TK @sumoru]

Huge respect for Tom and the team for helping founders outside the US and making speedrun more global. This type of work is what makes speedrun so amazing.

[Tom 🔨 @tmhammer]

30 of the 70 companies in our last @speedrun batch had founders born outside the US

and if we keep doing our job – and we will – that number is only going up:

* founders building products + teams internationally
* builders stuck in an H-1B job ready to accelerate their slope
* students here on F-1 who are ready to take a shot at their startup idea

Speedrun Global Founders is our answer >> our end-to-end approach to guiding founders through visas, customs, housing, banking, and building local SF community, while enabling founders from all over the globe to participate in Speedrun

we also have the coolest hat in venture - maybe thats a lame flex, but i honestly challenge you to show me better vc drip

you might catch a few of our founders wearing them today. come through Global Founders and I’ll bring you one 🫡

-apply below my friends-

[TK @sumoru]

Given where we are in the cycle and the cresting wave of agentic AI, I have a feeling SR007 is going to be epic.

[TK @sumoru]

@AntonioSitongLi @speedrun They are the most elite team in this space imho.