a16z believes that international founders of AI startups have an advantage
The venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) believes that startup founders from outside the U.S. may have an advantage in developing artificial intelligence-based products. According to a16z partner Gabriel Vasquez, 44% of the investments made by Apps Fund One and Apps Fund Two involve founders who are international entrepreneurs, TechCrunch reports.
Vasquez, along with general partner Angela Strange, is developing the Borderless Founder network to support immigrants and international founders. In a post reviewed by TechCrunch, they noted that it can be beneficial for entrepreneurs to maintain connections with both their home country and Silicon Valley.
According to Vasquez, a16z has spent over a million air miles seeking out international investment opportunities, rather than waiting for each team to relocate to the U.S. He attributes this approach to a shift in demand among corporate clients outside the United States. Previously, such buyers were slower to make decisions about purchasing technology and were less willing to pay for it, but the situation has changed significantly over the past three to five years.
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According to Vazquez, seed-stage startups from various countries are increasingly working with large international clients, particularly Fortune 500 companies. He believes that artificial intelligence is driving traditional businesses to purchase third-party solutions in order to remain competitive. This is particularly true in Latin America, where competition from cheap labor previously hindered the development of conventional software. AI agents, which operate continuously and are becoming more accurate, are already being used in customer support services.
According to Vasquez, American startups cannot always immediately serve the entire global market, as they primarily focus on customers in the United States. This creates opportunities for local founders to sell AI solutions to companies in their own countries, combining work at home with work in the United States.
TechCrunch cites ElevenLabs—an a16z portfolio company in the field of voice AI—as an example. Poland recently acquired a stake in the company, which has a subsidiary there; its clients include InPost and LOT Polish Airlines. The founders of ElevenLabs are Piotr Dombkowski and Mateusz Staniszewski. Vasquez also cited access to talent as a key advantage for international teams, since startups in Silicon Valley compete for talent with Anthropic and OpenAI.
