Andreessen Horowitz's Speedrun Bets $180 Million on Newly Hatched Startups

A few weeks ago, about 150 people gathered in the courtyard of Paris Hilton’s $63 million chateau-style mansion in the Los Angeles enclave of Beverly Park. They sipped cocktails, picked at poolside sushi and played poker while a DJ mixed beats. What looked like a Hollywood soiree was, in fact, a networking night for participants and alumni of Speedrun, the relatively unknown startup accelerator run by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

The celebration in SoCal signals a new approach for Andreessen Horowitz, often called a16z. The firm has traditionally waited until startups had some traction before writing checks. With Speedrun, it’s making a foray into pre-seed investing, positioning itself as a cool younger sibling to Y Combinator, the two-decade-old Silicon Valley institution that helped launch companies like Stripe Inc., Airbnb Inc. and Instacart Inc. But where Y Combinator has long been defined by overnight hackathons and scrappy nerds, Speedrun is targeting a more creative demographic.