Thoughts by Rox

thinking out loud.

[Katia Ameri @KatiaAmeri]

🛠️ STOP COLLECTING LOGOS AND START BUILDING. We just launched a16z speedrun Alpha. We’re giving technical students and recent grads a $20K grant (equity-free!) + up to $250K investment to start building pre-idea, pre-team, pre-entity. We can also match you with a fast-growing portco.

There’s a structural shift in how startups are being built. The leverage per builder has gone up significantly. A single strong engineer can now ship what used to require a team.

But the path into startups hasn’t kept up. You usually get funded or recruited only after you’ve collected enough logos.

Meanwhile, some of the best early engineers are already shipping code that people use, and that signal matters more than internships or logos.

Enter, Alpha. We believe that if you start earlier → momentum compounds.

Alpha has two tracks:

Found a Startup: Dreaming about an idea but haven’t formed an entity, raised capital, or built a team yet? Get a $20K grant upfront to build, with up to $250K in investment available.

Join a Startup: Join a fast-growing portfolio company as a full-time engineer. Spend your time in the codebase building the core product shoulder to shoulder with founders and early teams.

The Fellowship Experience: Starting in June, you’ll kick off with a retreat, then spend 8 weeks in rooms with some of the smartest engineers, founders and VCs in the ecosystem. Most importantly, you’ll form life-long relationships with peers also building the next generation of startups. ☺️

Companies formed by Alpha fellows automatically qualify for a guaranteed final-stage interview for our flagship program, a16z speedrun.

Nominate + tag anyone you think would be good below 👇

Apply now: https://t.co/78qNZhiZLx

Huge thank you to @andrewchen, @justmazer, the entire @speedrun team and Equal Opportunity Ventures for helping bring this to life 🚀

[Thoughts by Rox @thoughtsbyrox]

Feels like I should’ve been asked to opt in or out of that one

[Thoughts by Rox @thoughtsbyrox]

Seal commercial…

[Katia Ameri @KatiaAmeri]

📢 Big news! Excited to reveal we have 5X the number of events for SF & LA #TechWeek so far compared to last year! The @techweek_ event calendar is now live - register for access: https://t.co/PEAADG0olS

[Katia Ameri @KatiaAmeri]

🎉🎉Some news! I’m very excited to share that I’ve joined as a partner on the consumer investment team at @a16z.

I couldn’t be more humbled to be working with @andrewchen @conniechan @sriramk @jeff_jordan @kirbyman01 @DCoolican @tocelot @omooretweets @anneleeskates @JackSoslow