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@a16z

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cosign.co

Posts are not investment advice or an advertisement for investment services. See a16z.com/disclosures.
It's time to build. a16z.com Joined August 2009
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a16z @a16z
Introducing Cosign.

cosign.co
cosign.co Believe in someone, first. | Cosign Discover founders, builders, and startup companies through trusted endorsements. Explore profiles, curated lists, and career opportunities on Cosign.
Erik Torenberg Verified account @eriktorenberg Sep 25
Excited to introduce @Cosign: the curated professional network for the startup community: cosign.co

Our goal is to create the following:

- A comprehensive startup directory of investors, companies, and operators, including what they worked on and who they worked on it with.

- Cosign graph: Who shaped your career? Who were you actually in the trenches with? Who would work with you again? Who thinks you’re someone to watch?

- Durable reputation: Great endorsements happen every day on X and disappear into the feed. Cosign attaches those signals permanently to people and companies.

- Discovery: Who are the best fintech angels? Which AI companies should I watch? Who are the best designers?

- Intent network: Privately signal “I’d invest in them,” “I’d hire them,” “I’d work with them,” or eventually even “I’d acquire this company.” Match people when interest exists on both sides.

Imagine if Wikipedia, LinkedIn, and OG AngelList had a baby. Though Cosign is a community, not a business.

In order to join, you need to be cosigned. Or you can apply directly.

David Booth and I started this idea 7 years ago but didn’t have the firepower to make it work. Now we do.

No one has really touched LinkedIn in 20 years. Excited to take a swing.

cosign.co
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a16z @a16z
“Founded by Ben and Felicia Horowitz, the Paid in Full Foundation honors the hip-hop immortals whose artistic contributions far outweigh the financial remuneration they received in return.”

“As Ben described Eric B. & Rakim’s debut masterpiece, the foundation’s namesake Paid in Full: ‘I bought it for $10 and got at least $5 million worth of value out of it. It needed to be paid back.’”

“Each honoree receives a five-year grant with no strings attached. Inspired by Quincy Jones’ work with the Jazz Foundation, the grants have allowed past recipients, among them Rakim, Scarface, George Clinton, Roxanne Shanté, Grandmaster Caz, Kool Moe Dee, Grand Puba, and Kool G Rap, to purchase homes, pay off medical bills, and finish long-delayed creative projects.”

“Of course, a few grants a year can’t repay an entire generation, but they’re a start. Paid in Full refuses to let these cultural giants languish in our midst, and its grants have fundamentally changed the artists’ lives, though still not as much as the artists changed ours.”

Full piece from acclaimed music journalist Jeff Weiss on the Paid in Full Foundation’s 2026 Hip Hop Grandmaster Awards: a16z.news/p/hip-hop-has-…

@Passionweiss
www.a16z.news Hip-Hop Has No Social Security. Paid in Full Is Trying to Change That. At the 2026 Hip Hop Grandmaster Awards, the pioneers who built a multibillion-dollar culture finally collected on a debt nearly fifty years overdue.
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a16z @a16z
Some of the biggest openings in security have nothing to do with patching

How breaches began, per a 2026 report:
- 31% exploited a vulnerability
- 35% used phishing, stolen logins or impersonation scams

And nearly half now involve a vendor or partner, up 3x since 2024

Full piece from a16z's Asaf Ezra and Steph Zhang on six cybersecurity companies worth building: a16z.news/p/defense-in-d…
Asaf Ezra Verified account @asaf_ez 1d
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a16z @a16z
John Somorjai of Salesforce on the exit math behind today's startup valuations, and a16z's Alex Immerman on the much bigger outcomes that now drive returns:

John: "I think there's a lot of irresponsibility going on. The valuations are of course way too high."

"When you think about investing, you want to think about, what are my exit opportunities? And not every company is going to go public. In fact, very, very few companies go public, probably 1% or less."

"Once you get above $10 billion, for example, the buyer universe is so small, and yet you're seeing so many of these enormous multi-billion dollar valued companies out there, and there will be a reckoning that happens."

"A lot of these companies have valuations that are not sustainable, that they won't be able to grow into, and are also, I think, going to be bad for their employees."

Alex: "Part of my optimism comes from what a top one percent outcome was 10 years ago is very different from what a top one percent outcome is today... There have been these larger outcomes that drive the returns for the ecosystem at large."

John: "I'm an optimist. I could not do my job if I wasn't an optimist. But just know that I see the thousands of companies every year that don't make it. Because they all come to us to try to be acquired."

@jsomorjai @aleximm
2:41
a16z @a16z 1d
Salesforce's John Somorjai has spent more than 20 years doing deals for Marc Benioff, from Slack to six rounds of Anthropic, and runs a venture arm that has backed more than 750 companies.

His playbook is finding great technology that's starved for distribution and plugging it into 15,000 sales reps. Salesforce piloted Fin on its own help site, where it went live in 14 days and now handles over 40% of the traffic, resolving 65% without a human.

John joins a16z's Alex Immerman to discuss why Slack revenue is up almost 3x since the acquisition, how strong revenue can hide the churn that kills deals, the pen test that got into a CEO's laptop, and why robotics is where he's most excited to invest.

0:58 How Marc Benioff spots what to buy
3:48 The 3 tests for every acquisition
5:17 Salesforce's model as AI cuts seats
8:23 Fin resolves 65% with no human
10:32 The power of 15,000 sales reps
14:22 Founders who became product chiefs
17:34 Build vs buy when code is cheap
20:27 Why Salesforce bought Fin
22:58 Why Slack is perfect for AI agents
28:19 Salesforce Ventures' robotics bets
35:46 Why he's wary of new CRM startups
37:53 Why $10B+ startups have few buyers
39:32 Why he backed Anthropic six times
41:50 Red flags that kill acquisitions
44:27 The pen test that sank a deal
46:01 Growing up with a scientist father

YouTube: youtu.be/y4BdOtm40SA

@jsomorjai @salesforce @aleximm
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a16z @a16z
Companies are more confident in their backups than they perhaps should be

90% of leaders say they can recover from a cyberattack, but only 28% of victims actually got all their data back

Median recovery cost:
- Backups survived: $375K
- Backups hit: $3M

Full piece from a16z's Asaf Ezra and Steph Zhang on six cybersecurity companies worth building: a16z.news/p/defense-in-d…
Asaf Ezra Verified account @asaf_ez 1d
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