This is such a powerful example of how technology is transforming public safety. Very proud of the @Prepared_HQ team and the important work they do to keep communities safe.

.@Prepared_HQ is saving lives with AI. When someone who doesn't speak English dials 911, for instance, the wait for a human translator can take precious minutes that those in need don’t have. AI can translate it instantly. This is just one example among many of how Prepared provides emergency response centers with AI software to give accurate, real-time support to those in need. CEO @michael__chime shares the story of how their software helped a father and his daughter:

Much of what worked in traditional SaaS doesn’t hold true in the AI era. In meeting with hundreds of AI founders building for the enterprise, a few core principles have emerged that are shaping how teams are building and growing in today’s market. - Flashy demos are easy, building substantive products are hard: It takes orchestrating across multiple models, fine tuning, evals, and deep, customer-specific integration to make AI work in production. - $1M ARR isn’t the classic Series A benchmark anymore: AI-native startups are growing faster than their SaaS counterparts, with some hitting $5M ARR in ~9 months. Enterprises now have dedicated AI budgets and CEO-level mandates to buy. - Build costs are collapsing: OpenAI just cut o3 pricing by 80%. Tools like Cursor and Lovable are making it easier for developers and non-technical users to ship full apps. Expect a flood of applications (and potential competitors). - Speed compounds: Product velocity and early brand momentum can snowball into category dominance. Companies like Cursor, Decagon, and ElevenLabs moved fast, landed major customers, and built brand strength before incumbents could respond. - Moats still matter: The winners are becoming systems of record, embedding into workflows, and building deep vertical integrations, especially in complex industries like healthcare and logistics.

📣 We @a16z are so thrilled to be co-leading @DecagonAI’s Series C, just two years after introducing the founders and leading the seed at inception! Decagon is pioneering AI agents for customer experience and serves leaders like Hertz, ŌURA, Duolingo, Bilt, ClassPass, and Notion. Founders @thejessezhang @AshwinSreenivas have built a first-class team and a killer product. It’s been a true privilege to partner with them, and we @sarahdingwang @steph_zhang can’t wait for the incredible years ahead. They’re actively hiring on all fronts to meet the incredible customer demand!

1/ chatted with @dsp_ and @alexalbert_ about why we @anthropic launched mcp, where it is today, and where we see it going. it’s still early, but the protocol wouldn’t have seen the adoption it’s seen thus far if the community were not constantly working to evolve it 🙏

‼️We @a16z have many applied AI companies who are hiring! Roles for full-stack and ML engineers, forward-deployed engineers, PMs, designers, GTM, and commercial counsel. DM me with a resume or LinkedIn. Roles are in-person in SF, NY and London, and backgrounds in tech, startups, VC, banking or consulting all welcome. If you want to join a rocketship AI company, now is the time! 🚀

So excited to welcome my friend @eriktorenberg to @a16z!!

1/ In any fast growing organization – one of the best feelings as a manager or CEO is having someone who works for you that I call “Safe Hands.”

Things at @DecagonAI move fast — in my time here, we've grown the team 5x, shipped 1M+ lines of code, and helped leading enterprises like @Hertz @NotionHQ @Chime reimagine their customer experience with next-gen AI agents. We're hiring across EPD & sales! DM me if interested.

There were two events in the @a16z office last Friday. One was a women in AI mixer🍷The other was a super smash bros tournament 🎮 Guess which was which