Jon Lai

GP @a16z @speedrun 🌱 | former PM @RiotGames @TencentGlobal | dark souls fan & dad to 3 zerglings

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

a few tips for @speedrun applicants:
1) brag about your team. what's the most impressive thing you've done? we look for a history of excellence - professional, academic, personal achievements, side hustles, weekend projects etc

2) founder market fit. what's your earned insight into your problem space? what gives you an unfair advantage? why will your team win vs the competition / frontier labs?

3) product validation. what have you already built? there are so many ways to quickly prototype these days. what tests have you run to validate that people want what you've built - revenue, users, waitlists etc?

4) network your way to a warm referral. this bumps you for priority review. we have >600 Speedrun founders and many more in the broader a16z network. the networking you do here reflects the work you do every day as a founder - recruiting, sales, fundraising, etc

you may have noticed >50% of these tips are about the team. the most common mistake we see in apps / interviews is that founders spend most of their time talking about the product idea and not enough time on the team. whereas we base our investment process primarily on the team

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@Jacoob_shi @fearn_ai we agree!

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

congrats to Han, Angela, and team Fearn on closing their $5.5m seed round led by our friends at Kindred, Designer Fund, & Essence VC!

@fearn_ai is the AI-native patent platform built for a fast-moving IP world where being first-to-file is the difference between making money off your idea or not. Fearn has developed purpose-built models with custom workflows to take inventions from disclosure to filing-ready draft in minutes, all at a flat $2k per patent. Fearn is already used by leading startups and public companies, including Unity, Dandelion Energy, Serova Bio, Capsule, Syncere, Sans Strings, Taya etc

we’re proud to have been investors since the preseed thru a16z @speedrun where we saw the team in action up close. This team has amazing founder-market-fit: Han was a former patent prosecutor at Morrison Foerster and Angela is a Caltech PhD and AI researcher at Google

@ndrewlee @samshank and I have been so impressed by their vision and sheer velocity, and we couldn’t be more excited to support Fearn on the next phase of their journey! Let’s build!

[han @hanhanhan_kim]

Patent systems are first-to-file. It's produced a quiet two-tier system: well-funded companies file in 48 hours. Everyone else waits weeks.

Today we're announcing @fearn_ai's $5.5M seed to end that gap. 🧵

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@tkexpress11 @speedrun excited to meet more global founders!

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@ndrewlee @fearn_ai so good!

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@af_gao @fearn_ai let's go!!!

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@hanhanhan_kim @fearn_ai @speedrun just getting started my friend!

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@b00gi3 @spacetime_db @OneWillAI Follow and see for yourself! =)

[nico @nicochristie]

I think it's safe to say Excel is solved.

The sign of an Excel rookie used to be manually using your mouse... now it's doing ANYTHING at all without AI.

If you use Excel do yourself a favor and watch all 3 mins.

It's a new world. Solving tasks in 20 mins that take teams days.

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@nicochristie @GuangyuRobert Let’s go!

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@natetucker run toward something not away!

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@BrainEngineer Excited to see what you build Brendan!

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@marcmenase @speedrun come by the next one! =)

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

AI Faire by a16z @speedrun is kicking off with a blast at NY tech week!

23 ambitious AI builders sharing a sneak preview of the future

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@emax Thank you for building! :)

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@stefabrudan @speedrun We are biased but we love all these teams :)

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@nazzari @speedrun High energy wrap! 🙌

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@0xAlexArt @speedrun So much energy!

[Jon Lai @Tocelot]

@GEVS94 @astrange Let’s go Gabe and Angela!!! Excited to partner with more international founders thru Speedrun :)