Without a doubt, one of the hottest new startup accelerators in tech right now is Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun program. The accelerator launched in 2023 and has an acceptance rate of less than 1%. In one January blog post, The program reported that over 19,000 start-ups participated and less than 0.4% were accepted in the final cohort.
The program focused on gaming startups, then expanded to 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 lasts about 12 weeks in San Francisco. It used to have a program in LA, but Lu said the focus will be on SF from here on out.
There are two cohorts a year and around 50 to 70 start-ups are accepted into each. The program invests up to 1 million dollars in each company, although the downside is that it is a bit expensive. It typically invests $500,000 upfront in exchange for 10% of the startup company via a SAFE note, and another $500,000 if the next round is raised within 18 months, on whatever terms the other investors agree to.
In comparison, Y Combinator usually gets a flat 7% of the company for $125,000, with another $375,000 “invested in a capless MFN safe”.
Speedrun said its program is more “expensive for equity” because of what it offers founders. It gives them access to a16z’s consulting and business networks that help with tasks like go-to-market, brand development, media strategy and talent sourcing. In addition, it offers startups benefits such as $5 million in credits to vendors such as AWS, OpenAI, Nvidia and Deel.
Given the high interest and low acceptance rate, TechCrunch spoke with Lu for some tips on how startups can best stand out. The last cohort started in January and will conclude in April with a demo day. Applications for the next group opening in April, though it looks at off-season applications year-round, Lu said.
Focus on the founding team
Speedrun focuses on early stage startups. Because of that, they really look at who is on the founding team and whether their skills complement each other, Lu said.
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“That doesn’t mean one has to be technical and commercial and has to be marketing,” Lu said. It means that “we prefer not to see glaring holes in skills or interests. We want the founding team to be self-aware and part of the hiring plan.”
They also like to see teams that have worked together before or have a shared history.
“There are a lot of things that a founding team has to navigate in the 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.
Even though AI has lowered the barriers to building software, it’s still incredibly useful for a founding team to be technical, Lu said. At the same time, because AI has made it much faster to generate and validate hypotheses and get a product out there, Lu said the Speedrun team likes to see when a startup already has some market validation or traction for its product.
“Speedrun as a program is really great at helping teams put gasoline on a very small spark or fire,” he said. “We’re looking for teams that have tried to build and try to show us that there’s a little spark that we can light the flames.”
Limit the “theory” of the market
Lu said a common mistake founders make in the application process is spending too much energy talking about market theory or why there is a defined problem and why their solution is the right one. “All this may be true,” he said.
At the same time, he added, even the biggest, most successful tech companies faced unexpected foreclosures when they were young, sometimes even completely spun off. What a company thinks it is going to build in the beginning is not necessarily what will make it successful in the end.
“What we really want to hear is why this founding team is so good together,” he continued, “why it’s a great founding team, the best possible founding team to solve this particular problem.” And then, on top of that, any validation of the idea itself.
It’s okay to use AI for the app, but…
Lu said the program encourages each founder to use AI to “clean up” their app. He said there is no longer any excuse for grammatical errors or spelling mistakes, given the increasing sophistication of AI tools. He also said that AI can help founders untangle their thoughts, making them clearer, more concise and more coherent.
But if AI did all the work to explain the startup, that could backfire. If a founder makes it to the next round, it will be a live interview via video call. “At that point, their live storytelling skills will be put to the test,” he said. Therefore, founders should be ready to talk with conviction about their startup without the help of artificial intelligence.
Only about 10% of founders make it to the video call stage. There are usually two to three investors on the jury at a time.
After the live interview, the team usually makes a few more screening calls with the founders, and then the final decision on the cohort is made.
Be greedy on the network
There are, of course, other accelerator programs for startups to choose from. Lu said that Speedrun itself was inspired by some of these other programs.
However, he said, this accelerator prides itself on giving founders access to a large, dedicated operations team. In fact, he said the best teams to get the most out of the program are the ones that are most “greedy to get in touch with the amazing people and programs” that Speedrun has to offer.
Lu listed just a few points: a16z has about 600 people, and 10% of those staff belong to the investment team, he said. Everyone else is an operator who supports the companies the company works with. As a result, founders at Speedrun will have access to experts who can help with marketing, banking, finance, management and many other functions. So it helps to know who the startup wants to connect with and why.
“We tell the founders who go through the program, what you get out of Speedrun is what you put into it,” he said. “We think founders who want to benefit from global experts in many different fields early in their startup journey would be very smart to choose us.”
Advice from a founder on the program
Founder Mohamed Mohamed, who is in the recent cohort, just announced a $5M raise for tech startup Smart Bricks led by a16z’s Speedrun. He was drawn to the program because he said it stood out as one of the few “expressly designed for co-founders working on frontier AI applications,” and he chose it because he wanted a program that would allow him to “stress test an ambitious technical vision.”
Mohamed said he treated the implementation as an internal strategy memo rather than a step. “Instead of glossing over buzzwords, we focused on clarity—the real problem, why it’s structurally difficult, and why our team is unusually well placed to solve it,” he said. “We were clear about what was working, what wasn’t, and where we needed help. I think that honesty and clearly articulating why this problem matters” is what helped the company through the application process.
He called the whole process “rigorous but refreshingly thoughtful” and said it was designed to understand how founders think, not just what they’ve created so far. “The conversations went deep into product architecture, data strategy and long-term ambition. It felt closer to a partner-level conversation than a typical accelerator interview, which was a powerful message for us,” he said.
His general advice is to be “spiritually honest and accurate.” For example, he said in his application that he refrained from “over-optimizing” for the sake of promoting his company. “If you’re vague, derivative or overly defensive about your idea, it shows quickly. Don’t try to sound bigger than you are; clarity about where you really stand is far more compelling than inflated narratives,” he said.
Ultimately, “Speedrun isn’t looking for perfect companies; it’s looking for founders who can think clearly about complex problems and build with conviction,” he said. “Express the hard parts of what you do and why they’re worth tackling. Depth beats polish every time.”
Correction, the story originally misstated YC’s investment as 7%. It has been fixed.
