a16z Build / Community
Great startups don’t come from ideas alone.
There are certain conditions under which an ambitious, talented person is more likely to start a company, and have a higher chance of going on to be successful.
Some of it is serendipity - the right people in the right room, having the right conversation, at the right time.
But it’s not just chance. Startups emerge where ambitious people collide, swap ideas, and push each other further than they would alone.
“Ambitious people are rare, so if everyone is mixed together randomly… the ambitious ones won’t have many ambitious peers. When you take people like this and put them together with other ambitious people, they bloom like dying plants given water.”
Build exists to make those rooms more common.
We created Build to make those conditions far more likely.
Build is a dinner series, community, and newsletter for world-class founders and operators who are openly - or secretly - figuring out their next big thing.
It’s not an accelerator. There’s no curriculum, no demo day, and no prescribed outcome.
Instead we create small, repeatable environments where people with ambition, ability, and similar timing spend enough time together that trust compounds and decisions get sharper.
Spotlight: Decagon
Two years ago, Jesse Zhang and Ashwin Sreenivas met at an a16z retreat and co-founded Decagon to help companies deliver exceptional customer support at scale.
Now Decagon is a leader in conversational AI for customer experience, powering brands like Eventbrite, Rippling, Vanta, and ClassPass - with a $1.5B valuation and $231M in total funding.
Who is Build for?
Founders committed to building something new, looking for talented people on the journey: co-founders, early engineers, designers, advisors, and peers beyond the cap table.
Joiners who want to work with a strong founder from day one, or who are between chapters and looking for a warm introduction instead of another cold inbox.
Operators shaping emerging crafts - design engineers, FDEs, growth builders, talent leaders, and others defining a role before the market has a clean name for it.
Most gatherings are in SF and NYC, but you can be based anywhere.
What’s included
Founder community
Private dinners, retreats, and off-the-record chats with people at the same early stage - co-founders, joiners, advisors, and peers.
Fellowships
Focused cohorts for practitioners defining emerging crafts: design engineering, FDE, growth, talent, and new media.
See fellowshipsEvents
Invitation-only gatherings hosted by a16z - hiring nights, dinners, and smaller rooms around live work.
Early roles
Under-the-radar openings at high-potential startups, shared with context before they hit the job boards.
Newsletter
Spotlights, introductions, and what’s moving in the Build network.
Read the newsletter
