a16z GP: Ideas Used to Be Too Ambitious, Now They're Too Small
lennysan · x · 2026-09-12
a16z GP Anish Acharya says AI has inverted VC logic: three years ago, overly ambitious ideas were passed on and $100M seed rounds seemed absurd; today, "an idea that's too small is not something we want to engage with." Ambition-without-a-ceiling now shapes how they pick companies.
The episode also pushes back on the "permanent underclass" narrative: radiologist demand keeps rising after 20 years of being "cooked," open engineering roles are at all-time highs, and unlike mobile's winner-take-all markets, every AI stack layer has 20 strong competitors. Other topics: every company becoming a series of loops, moats being discovered not designed.
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