Jennifer Li, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), breaks down why the firm allocated $1.7 billion of its latest $15 billion fund specifically toward AI infrastructure, and what she's betting on next.
Jennifer has backed ElevenLabs from Series A all the way through Series D, watching it grow to an $11 billion valuation. In this episode, she explains what she saw in voice AI before anyone else did, what makes a founder worth backing regardless of the tech, and why the next wave of AI infrastructure is being rebuilt from the ground up.
In this episode:
- Why a16z bet $1.7B on AI infrastructure (and why now)
- The shift from cloud to AI-native infrastructure: storage, compute, orchestration, memory
- How ElevenLabs crossed the uncanny valley in synthetic voice
- Voice agents as the first AI category to truly scale in the enterprise
- What "king-making" in AI go-to-market actually looks like
- The traits that made Jennifer write a check for ElevenLabs on founder conviction alone
- Open source vs. frontier models: what 2027 looks like
- Why world models and vision language models are the next unlock
- AI and human creativity: why directors and authors won't be replaced
- How a 1-2 person studio can now make a full movie
Host: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP Marketing at GTMnow
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi
Guest: Jennifer Li, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferhli/
https://x.com/JenniferHli
Connect with Max:
https://x.com/hackitmax
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxaltschuler
Connect with Paul:
https://x.com/PaulGTM
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulsirving
Timestamps:
0:00 - Cold open
1:06 - Max & Paul intro: are we in a bubble?
1:46 - AI vs. dot-com era: the key differences
4:55 - B2B SaaS disruption and value destruction (Thoma Bravo / Medallia)
6:39 - Intercom / Finn: crossing the chasm from legacy to AI-native
8:08 - Introducing Jennifer Lee, a16z General Partner
8:31 - Paul's key takeaway: the distribution era
9:41 - Why speed to default brand has never mattered more
11:33 - The ElevenLabs story: a16z led Series A, B, and C
12:02 - Why the seed strategy still works
13:37 - What the best founders do differently with model capabilities
15:58 - Jennifer Lee joins: why a16z raised $1.7B for infrastructure
16:22 - What existing infrastructure is being rebuilt for AI
19:19 - Specific areas a16z is focused on: models, storage, dev tools, security
20:35 - 90%+ of code now written by agents
21:52 - What Jennifer saw early in the 11 Labs / voice AI space
25:19 - Go-to-market in AI infrastructure: what's working
27:29 - Becoming the default brand: the "Kleenex effect" in AI
28:37 - What makes a founder worth backing on conviction alone
30:48 - Predictions for 2026/2027: open source catching up fast
31:39 - Most exciting new modalities: world models and vision language models
32:07 - AI and human creativity: can they coexist?
34:42 - What's blocking the creative AI future
36:05 - "The best ideas live in the graveyard"
36:57 - Closing advice: make AI tools your friends
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The GTMnow Podcast
The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.
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