Video · 2026-08-12 · 51m · 6 moments

The New Rules for Founders | Garry Tan on a16z

✦ AI generated

timeline · colored by role

Claim◆

Founders should pursue what they know and are genuinely interested in rather than chasing what's hot or following conventional wisdom.

Garry Tan reflects on early career mistakes of following trends instead of staying with what he knew, emphasizing that the right question for founders isn't 'what's hot' but 'what do you know uniquely?'.

transcript

Garry Tan: I was still excited about tech though. Um you know, I had done a lot of web programming and then one of my regrets actually was um I was sort of chasing what was hot instead of what was clearly the thing I knew... And the classic question I'm sure you get that, you know, all investors get all the time is, 'What's hot and what should I work on?' And that's the wrong question to ask. Like the right question is like, 'What are you interested in? What do you know uniquely?'

provides context · 2supports · 3

Claim

Truly important innovations often appear as toys or fringe ideas initially, and the most interesting ventures can't find the edge of the intellectual conversation.

Garry Tan explains that the most significant breakthroughs often come from 'fringe weirdo punks' pursuing obsessions that seem like toys, citing the history of personal computing.

transcript

Garry Tan: I think Chris Dixon talks about this all the time where, um, you know, you're in the idea maze, but you know, the cool parts of the idea maze are like the weird fringe parts, actually. It's always like, uh, what is a toy? Like and that's the pattern in Silicon Valley over and over again that bears repeating, right?... Like the idea that you could have a computer on every desk in every home... the people who created that thing, they were fringe weirdo punks, actually.

supports · 1

Claim

Everything awesome is kind of a cult—it starts with a truth or belief that flies in the face of orthodoxy.

Reflecting on Palantir's early days, Garry Tan concludes that transformative companies are like cults, built on 'punk' beliefs that challenge established orthodoxies.

transcript

Garry Tan: From Palantir I definitely learned that everything that's awesome in my life is kind of a cult. That starts with some sort of truth or belief that flies in the face of an orthodoxy, which is very punk actually.

gives example · 1supports · 3

Prediction◆

In the era of agentic coding, skill files and markdown can function as infinite, perfect employees, allowing small teams to achieve massive scale.

Garry Tan describes how agentic systems can 'skillify' tasks into reusable markdown files and code, enabling tiny teams to reach 15M ARR by treating these files as perfect, tireless employees.

transcript

Garry Tan: I think we're just seeing like across the board, um, a markdown file is an employee. And it's an employee that, uh, will do the job perfectly every single time and it will do it like as many times as you want... we were talking about earlier that's like literally you can go from zero to 15 mil ARR in about 4 months with like two or three people and like hundreds of agent like, you know, a few hundred skill files.

extends · 2gives example · 1

Claim

AI agents can provide 'clairvoyance' into organizations by ingesting vast amounts of data, overcoming the human limitation of holding only 7±2 things in the mind.

Garry Tan explains that while humans are limited to 7±2 items in working memory, AI agents can ingest unlimited data to provide deep organizational insights, effectively giving leaders 'clairvoyance'.

transcript

Garry Tan: The world is basically built on things that are built around human beings and human beings can only keep seven plus or minus two things in their head at any given time. And you know, guess what? You plus an agent can keep basically three Harry Potter books in your head... it can actually look at the ground truth from the data, right? And it's like that, you know, that's clairvoyance, right?

explains mechanism · 1

Prediction

Society and bureaucracy change much slower than people expect, which is actually a 'white pill' because it gives society time to adapt to AI.

Garry Tan argues that the 'white pill' regarding AI is that society, government, and corporations are incredibly slow to change, meaning the transition will take 20+ years, allowing time for adaptation.

transcript

Garry Tan: Society is way slower than you think. Government is way slower than you think. Every company in the world is way slower than you think... the white pill to me is like it's going to be 20 years and that's not a bad thing. That's actually a good thing.

extends · 1supports · 1

Highlight slides

Pursue What You Know, Not What's Hot✦ from: Founders should pursue what they know and are genuinely interested in rather than chasing what's hot or following conventional wisdom.Markdown Files as Perfect Employees✦ from: In the era of agentic coding, skill files and markdown can function as infinite, perfect employees, allowing small teams to achieve massive scale.From Zero to $15M ARR✦ from: In the era of agentic coding, skill files and markdown can function as infinite, perfect employees, allowing small teams to achieve massive scale.

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