How to join a16z’s ultra-competitive Speedrun startup accelerator program

Without a doubt, one of the hottest new startup accelerators in tech right now is Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun program. Launched in 2023, the accelerator has an acceptance rate of less than 1%. In a January blog post, the program said more than 19,000 startups pitched their ideas and less than 0.4% were accepted into the final group.

The program was focused on gaming startups, then expanded to include entertainment and media, and is now a “horizontal program,” Joshua Lu, general manager of the program and partner at a16z, told TechCrunch. Today, founders of any type of startup can apply, and the program runs for approximately 12 weeks in San Francisco. She had a program in Los Angeles, but Law said the focus would be on science fiction from now on.

There are two groups per year, and about 50 to 70 startups are accepted into each. The program invests up to $1 million in each company, although the downside is that it is a bit pricey. You typically invest $500,000 upfront for 10% equity in the startup via a secured note, and another $500,000 if the next round is raised within 18 months, on whatever terms the other investors agree.

By comparison, Y Combinator typically gets a fixed 7% stake in the company for $125,000, with another $375,000 “invested in a high-custody unrestricted treasury.”

Speedrun said its platform is “more affordable in the equity space” because of what it offers founders. It provides them with access to a16z’s consulting and business networks that help with tasks such as go-to-market, brand development, media strategy and talent sourcing. Plus, it offers startup perks like $5 million in credits to vendors like AWS, OpenAI, Nvidia, and Deel.

Given the high interest and low acceptance rate, TechCrunch spoke to Lu to get some tips on how startups can better stand out. The latest group started in January and will end in April with a demo day. Applications for the next batch will open in April, although they consider applications in the off-season throughout the year, Lu said.

Focus on the founding team

Speedrun focuses on early-stage startups. For this reason, they actually vet the founding team members and whether their skills complement each other, Lu said.

“It doesn’t mean one has to be technical, one has to be commercial and one has to do marketing,” Lu said. This means that “we prefer not to see any glaring gaps in capabilities or interests. We want the founding team to be self-aware and have that be part of the hiring plan.”

They also like to see teams that have worked together before or have a shared history.

He continued: “There are a lot of things that a founding team has to navigate in their startup journey, and having a little bit of pattern recognition, being able to work with each other, knowing how to disagree and how to come out on the other side of a disagreement, all of these things are things that people on founding teams with a shared history have an easier time with, on average.”

Although AI has lowered the barriers to building software, it is still extremely beneficial for the founding team to be technical, Lu said. At the same time, because AI has made hypothesis building, validation, and product launch much faster, Lu said the Speedrun team likes to see when a startup already has a bit of market validation or traction for its product.

“Speedrun is really great at helping teams pour gasoline on a very small spark or fire,” he said. “We look for teams that have sought to build and try to show us that there is a little spark that we can light a fire with.”

Limit market “theory”.

One common mistake founders often make in the application process is spending too much energy talking about market theory or why a specific problem exists and why the solution they offer is the right one, Lu said. “All of that may be true,” he added.

At the same time, even the largest and most successful technology companies faced unexpected sieges when they were small, and sometimes even completely pivoted, he added. What a company thinks it will build in the beginning is not necessarily what will make it successful in the end.

He continued, “What we really want to hear about is why this founding team is so good together, why they are a great founding team, the best possible founding team to solve this particular problem.” Then moreover, any confirmation of the idea itself.

It’s okay to use AI for an app, but…

Lu said the program encourages each founder to use AI to “clean up” their applications. He said that there is now no excuse for grammatical errors or spelling errors due to the increasing sophistication of artificial intelligence tools. He also said that AI can help founders organize their ideas, making them clearer, concise and more coherent.

But if AI does all the work explaining the startup, it could backfire. If a founder makes it to the next round, the interview will be via live video call. “At that point, their skills in explaining direct narratives will be tested,” he said. So founders must be prepared to talk convincingly about their startups without the help of AI.

Only about 10% of founders make it to the video calling stage. There are usually two or three investors on the judging panel at a time.

After the live interview, the team usually makes a few screening calls with the founders, and then the final decision is made on the combination.

Be greedy for communication

There are, of course, other accelerator programs for startups to choose from. Speedrun itself was inspired by some of these other programs, Lu said.

However, he said that this accelerator prides itself on giving founders access to a large, dedicated operating team. In fact, he said the teams that get the most out of the program are the ones that are most “greedy to learn about the people and the great software that Speedrun has to offer.”

Lu listed just a few points: a16z has about 600 people, he said, and 10% of those employees are on the investment team; Everyone else is a worker who supports the companies the company works with. As a result, Speedrun founders will have access to experts who can help with marketing, banking, finance, management and many other functions. So it’s helpful to know who the startup wants to connect with and why.

“We tell founders who come through the program, ‘What you get out of Speedrun is what you put into it,’” he said. “We think founders who want to tap into world-class experts in many different fields early in their startup journey would be really smart to choose us.”

Advice from one of the founders of the program

Founder Mohamed Mohamed, who was in the latter group, just announced a $5 million raise for his startup Smart Bricks, which is led by a16z’s Speedrun startup. He was drawn to the program because he said it stood out as one of the few programs “explicitly designed for co-founders working on frontier AI applications,” and he chose it because he wanted a program that would allow him to “test an ambitious technical vision.”

Mohammed said he treated the request as an internal strategic memo rather than a presentation. “Instead of refining buzzwords, we focused on clarity — the real problem, why it’s structurally difficult, and why our team is extraordinarily well positioned to solve it,” he said. “We were honest about what was working, what wasn’t working, and where we needed help. I think that honesty and clear expression of why this issue is important” is what helped the company in the application process.

He described the whole process as “rigorous but refreshingly thoughtful,” and said it was designed to understand how the founders thought, not just what they had built so far. “The conversations delved into product architecture, data strategy, and long-term ambition,” he said. “It seemed more like a partner-level discussion than a typical accelerator interview, which was a strong signal for us.”

His general advice is to be “honest and intellectually rigorous.” For example, he said in his application that he avoids “over-optimization” in order to amplify his company. “If you’re vague, derivative, or overly defensive about your idea, it comes out quickly,” he said. “Don’t try to sound bigger than you are; clarity about where you actually are is much more convincing than inflated narratives.”

Ultimately, he said, “Speedrun isn’t looking for perfect companies; it’s looking for founders who can think clearly about complex problems and build with conviction.” “Explain the tough parts of what you do and why they’re worth tackling. Depth wins out every time.”

Correction, the story originally misstated YC’s investment by 7%. It has been corrected.