Rayan Dabbagh (@rayandabbagh) header
Rayan Dabbagh (@rayandabbagh) profile picture

founder (a16z speedrun); software engineer, @aws @facebook u; ironman, @usatriathlon; host, @0to1pod; angel investor

New York, NY
Joined December 2024
Photo by Rayan Dabbagh (@rayandabbagh)Photo by Rayan Dabbagh (@rayandabbagh)Photo by Rayan Dabbagh (@rayandabbagh)Photo by Rayan Dabbagh (@rayandabbagh)Photo by Rayan Dabbagh (@rayandabbagh)Photo by Rayan Dabbagh (@rayandabbagh)Photo by Rayan Dabbagh (@rayandabbagh)Photo by Rayan Dabbagh (@rayandabbagh)Photo by Rayan Dabbagh (@rayandabbagh)
outlook is down and half of nyc is panicking meanwhile, i’m pretty sure no one in sf even knows
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i genuinely believe generalization is the fastest path to deploying robots in real work environments at scale multimodal models are making great progress to the point where hours of cooking data can somehow help a robot reason about completely different tasks but “somehow works” isn’t reliable enough for the real world yet training a separate policy for every task is obviously not scalable either generalization is the path but reliability is the bottleneck
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recently moved back to nyc after spending a couple of months in sf this year, and i can definitely attest to this i used to go to SF for weeks at a time, spending a week there every month, but actually living there for > 3 months is a completely different experience sf feels like you’re almost conditioned to eat, sleep, and breathe your company. the entire environment pushes you in that direction in nyc that level of immersion feels more like a choice than the default unless you intentionally surround yourself with the right people
being a founder in nyc and then coming to san francisco feels like training for the olympics in the colorado rockies and coming to sea level
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people forget that data isn't a fungible commodity more data doesn’t automatically mean better models. quality, diversity, and relevance matter, not just volume that’s why i think the race for the right data will be more interesting than the race for compute and power
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high-quality data is the bottleneck at the frontier right now anyone telling you otherwise is just coping automation never ends. you automate one function, freeing humans to take on new tasks that eventually become candidates for automation themselves the cycle continues data might just be the fastest-proliferating asset class of the decade
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the easiest way to get hired
i'm begging you: - pick 10 startups that raised a seed round in the last 6 months - sign up and use each product like a real customer for one day - write down every spot where you got stuck or confused - pick the 3 worst ones and record a 2 min loom showing how you'd fix them - send it to the founder on X with one line: "used [product] today, here's what i'd fix first"
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For everyone who's been DM'ing me about @speedrun, the team just answered pretty much everything you need to know!
NEW: INVESTOR ADVICE FOR APPLYING TO SPEEDRUN (SR008 EDITION) Every cohort we sit down with our investors to hear what’s top of mind. This time @ndrewlee got in the booth with @kenanhsaleh, @emilybenn12, @seeamshahidnoor, and @tkexpress11 to talk about: 00:00 - what’s changed in apps this cycle 04:15 - team vs. market vs. traction: how we weigh them 08:14 - hot markets vs. ones that feel inevitable 10:36 - spotting the gaps the frontier models leave 13:35 - where speedrun fits in your founder journey 22:26 - how to make your application stand out 30:05 - common mistakes (AI is not your “why now”) 38:46 - the 10-min interview + co-founder dynamics 45:41 - what you get working with speedrun SR008 apps close Nov 1. Watch the full roundtable here 👇
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urgently need to speak with someone at @useKled within the next 24 hours support said they’d get back to me within 48 hours but i still haven’t heard anything and this is pretty important would really appreciate an intro to anyone on the team
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!=
re Spirit Airlines data: if you train a model on a failed airline's emails you will get a model that is really, really great at running a failed airline
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speedrun is the best decision i’ve taken for my company. dm me if you want to be part of SR008
Applications for @speedrun are now open! If you’re an ambitious, high agency founder - we want to meet you We’ll bring the capital, customers, & talent - you bring yourself and your wildest ideas Speedrun is an inception fund. We are your first believers - writing the first check and growing with you as your startup scales Speedrun founders get up to $1M in funding and over $10M in startup credits across compute, cloud, marketing, and more Speedrun is for founders with big ideas. We have teams creating new forms of datacenters, constructing orbital space platforms, disrupting 50yo vertical software incumbents, building novel AI doctors, and more In a world where AI has made building easier than ever, the only cap on what a startup can achieve is the limit of their ambition. So we write the first check precisely on the ideas that sound a little crazy apply at the link below before apps close on Nov 1st
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Guys, I don’t review apps! I can only recommend the top ones to the a16z speedrun partners, and those apps will most likely get looked at :)
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Lots of interest in my DMs! I’ll set aside some time today to go through the pitches and decide who should be connected to Speedrun. Thanks guys!
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Would do another 12 weeks just to work with Josh again
Despite having experienced every cohort so far, it always surprises me just how much a driven, ambitious team can get done in 12 weeks. I've seen companies go from a standing start to putting a real dent in the world. I've seen teams multiply in size, gobbling S tier people along the way and turning their company into a gravity well for talent. I've seen revenue/usage/DAU go parabolic SR008 applications are officially open. Show us what you'll be able to do in 12 weeks. It's time to apply (link below)
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a16z @speedrun demo day be like:
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what a success! the war is now over thank you @speedrun 🫶
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demo day @speedrun tomorrow the a16z speedrun office literally looks like a war zone right now
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2026 is the year of personal agents and somehow it still feels like day 1
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remaining few days ahead of @speedrun demo day next week..
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