You either want revenge or redemption.

And some of the best entrepreneurs have this in common.

And you see this with some of the best entrepreneurs.

Like, what is the driving motivation?

These are all industries that I wouldn't say they've been untouched by software.

They've been untouched by specialty software.

And the reason why is because the market was perceived to be too small.

That's the really hard thing to disambiguate today, which is you can have things grow so quickly,

but they can also go to zero so quickly because anybody can build software on like a weekend,

which is both great and terrifying at the same time.

Today's episode is a conversation with Alex Rampel on TVPN, following the announcement of A16Z's new fund.

In this discussion, Alex reflects on his path from early software entrepreneur to leading A16Z's apps fund and how those experiences shaped the way he evaluates founders today.

He shares what he looks for at exceptional builders, including high agency, deep knowledge of category

history, and the ability to materialize talent, capital, and customers, as well as why motivation

beyond money, what he calls revenge or redemption, often determines who indoors.

They also get into how Alex is thinking about the application layer in an AI-driven market,

from greenfield opportunities and labor-replacing software to proprietary

data modes and while compressing

timelines are raising the bar for defensibility,

distribution, and long-term advantage.

What a day. Congratulations.

How are you doing?

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