what I Learned from a16z Speedrun Demo Day in San Francisco
The future of startups, in 120 seconds each. Here’s what I saw, and my 10 favorite companies
I spent today at the a16z Speedrun Demo Day in San Francisco. It felt like watching the future on fast-forward.
58 founders took to the stage one after another. No intros, no applause. Each had two minutes to convince a room full of investors that what they were building mattered.
There was no breathing space between pitches. When one founder left the stage, another was already walking up. The effect was electric. By the time it ended, everyone in the room was exhausted and inspired at the same time.
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The Essence of Speedrun
is Andreessen Horowitz’s early-stage accelerator for founders who build fast and think bigger than their resources allow. Twice a year, it gathers around sixty companies and gives them twelve weeks of mentorship, capital, and storytelling firepower. The fifth cohort, Speedrun_005, might be its best yet — full of founders redefining how AI, software, and hardware will collide in the years ahead.Founders spend twelve weeks building, testing, and launching. They get up to a million dollars in capital, five million in credits from partners like AWS, OpenAI, and NVIDIA, and direct access to a16z’s global network of more than two thousand companies.
However, the real value lies in the structure. Every founder is paired with experts in product, brand, marketing, and business development. They rehearse live demos with buyers. They refine their storytelling with media operators. They learn to sell before they finish building.
The result is a batch of startups that feel fully formed long before their first real funding round.
I was lucky to attend the demo day with my friends and creators
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The Full Cohort of SR005:
Agent Astra (New York) – Building the AI-enabled UPS.
Ambiguous (Washington) – AI coworkers that think like teammates.
Anchr (New York City) – The AI operating system for food distributors.
AndThen (Los Angeles) – Voice-first games and stories with AI characters.
Argu (Israel) – Vision agents that analyze CCTV feeds in real time.
Artifact (New York) – System of intelligence for accounting.
Atrios (New York) – AI-powered network intelligence for GTM teams, one million in revenue run rate.
Autonomous Investing (San Francisco) – Superhuman AI investor.
Avenir AI (San Francisco) – AI agents for employee benefits in a 1.9 trillion dollar market.
Axon (London) – DeepMind for finance.
Azimov (San Francisco) – Engine that brings AI to life, 2.5 million ARR.
Bead AI (San Francisco) – AI agents automating internal audit.
bins (Los Angeles) – Making online shopping fun again.
BotBot (San Francisco) – The UX layer for AI products.
Brief (San Francisco) – The AI Chief Product Officer.
Creed (New York) – AI creative tools grounded in faith.
Daedalia (San Francisco) – Building emotional bonds with virtual humans.
Dex (London and San Francisco) – The AI recruiter that finds the most motivated candidates.
Dispatcher (San Francisco) – Agentic interface for drones and robotics.
Doublespeed (San Francisco) – Synthetic creator infrastructure for attention automation.
EverCurrent (Oakland) – Keeping hardware development aligned.
Ezra AI Labs (California) – AI interviewer for hiring teams.
Fearn (San Francisco) – Compliant AI for drafting intellectual property.
First Voyage (San Francisco) – Building modern mythologies to improve mental and physical health.
Jigsaw (Los Angeles) – Agentic canvas for marketing and distribution.
Jooba (Los Angeles) – The world’s first autonomous recruiting firm.
Kanu AI (San Francisco) – Enterprise-grade AI engineer for product roadmaps.
Kintow (New York) – AI copilot for modern restaurants.
Lekondo (New York) – AI-native discovery engine for fashion.
Limy AI (New York) – Puts brands in control of agentic interactions.
Loan Labs (Los Angeles) – Building agentic workers for mortgage companies.
Logical Health (Palo Alto) – Transparency engine for health insurance.
Luvu (San Francisco) – AI accountability coach for fitness.
Maniac (San Francisco) – Pareto-optimal AI for enterprise intelligence.
Margin (New York) – The first AI-powered credit card.
Metal (Los Angeles) – Superintelligence for fundraising.
Moescape (San Francisco) – A social platform powered by imagination.
Moona Health (San Francisco) – AI-powered sleep care covered by insurance.
Nexxa.ai (Sunnyvale) – Specialized AI for heavy industries.
Ocoder (San Francisco) – AI-powered development environment for designers and PMs.
Oleum (New York City) – Platform that helps companies use external data faster.
OpenSesame (Toronto) – Turning legacy software AI-native in days.
Pelago (Los Angeles) – Voice-first AI wellness apps.
Pencil.dev (California) – AI designer for every engineer.
Prepp (Chicago) – Reinventing EdTech with modular learning.
Presia (San Francisco) – AI agents for management consulting, 270 thousand ARR in three months.
Rork (San Francisco) – Lovable for mobile apps.
Sans Strings Studio (San Francisco) – Tech-augmented studio for next-gen content.
Shockwave (Los Angeles) – AI gaming platform with 2.3 million in revenue and 180 thousand daily users.
Sonatic (San Francisco) – Interface that turns tasks from to-do into done.
Sourcerer (San Francisco) – Building the autonomous supply chain of the future.
Taya (San Francisco) – Wearable AI built by ex-Apple and Stanford engineers.
URSA Mining (San Francisco) – Making autonomous mining a reality.
Variant (San Francisco) – Social platform for playable content.
Vega (New York) – AI-powered social orbits.
YKB (Los Angeles) – The social layer for fan prediction markets.
Zero Billion (San Francisco) – AI-native TV show platform generating two million in revenue.
Zingroll (San Francisco) – AI streaming platform with eighty-five million organic views.
A Note for Founders
I’m part of the a16z Speedrun network as a scout. That means I can invest in and refer startups for future cohorts.
If you’re building something ambitious or know someone who is, reach out. I’ll review as many as I can and share the best ones directly with the Speedrun team. If you make it, you’ll be pitching on that stage next batch.
My Top 10 from a16z Speedrun_005
This was the strongest Speedrun batch I’ve seen yet. Now, I’m sharing the ten companies that impressed me the most during Demo Day, the ones I’m personally tracking or already investing in:
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