60 founders. One stage. You could be next

Last September, the founders of 60 startups were sitting right where you are now, looking at a message inviting them to apply to join the next batch of a16z speedrun.

Last Monday, those same founders stepped onto the stage at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco to pitch their companies to over 1,000 in the audience and over 10,000 viewers online.

As the first attendees attendees arrived, a16z’s Andrew Lee climbed up on a chair to rally the crowd.

Breakfast was served as founders set up their booths and chatted with guests.

Quickly, the main theater filled up with guests eager to kick off the day’s main event.

Demo Day presentations are intense: a back-to-back onslaught of 90-second pitches from the 60 speedrun companies from the class of SR006.

But the founders came prepared. Founders like Sam Oh of Concorda (shown below) had already done a test-run in this venue two weeks prior, during “Alumni Demo Day.”

The range among this year’s companies was wild: insurance solutions, next-gen entertainment apps, laundry-folding robots, and AI agents for just about everything.

Once the pitches wrapped, every founder had time at their booths to field questions.

Here, as onstage, all the practice and time spent building pays off when you see a founder walking an investor through the product for the first time, watching the lightbulb go on.

Some founders came ready to be remembered. Paypath’s team showed up in custom “Modern Debt Rebuilt” merch, just the kind of branding instinct that sticks in an investor’s memory at 6pm after 60 pitches.

That’s a wrap on SR006. If you’re building something interesting, apply to join SR007. We can’t wait to see you on that stage.

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