Artificial intelligence could broaden the range of people able to build startups, although easier coding would leave other demands of running a company intact, Andreessen Horowitz's Andrew Chen said.
Chen's analysis, “New Founder Archetypes in the AI Age,” published Oct. 30 by the venture capital firm, questioned whether familiar founder backgrounds would retain their advantages. He argued that changing technology could give previously overlooked candidates a stronger position.
Chen considered solo founders, people without coding skills, industry specialists, young builders and online creators. His analysis drew on startup examples and his work with founders, rather than a defined study period or a statistical dataset.
Chen works on the firm's Speedrun program, which makes initial investments of up to $1 million in new startups, he said. Assessing founders' backgrounds is part of that work, giving the firm a business interest in identifying promising candidates.
For solo founders, Chen argued that AI could make it possible to produce an initial product without a business or technical cofounder. But teams using the same tools could also accomplish more, while customer meetings would still require time.
Chen used hypothetical productivity gains of 100 times to illustrate how AI might help both individuals and teams. He did not present that figure as a measured result, and questioned whether coding had been startups' main constraint.
People from finance, consulting and creative industries could also gain the ability to build software, Chen argued. He qualified that prospect by drawing a distinction between producing a demonstration and delivering a dependable product that can serve more users.
Technical judgment could become more valuable as products grow more complex, Chen said. Industry specialists, including doctors and real estate brokers, might identify problems through daily work, but their familiarity could make it harder to rethink an industry.
Young founders could build on experience making games or online tools, while creators could introduce software to existing audiences, Chen argued. Neither advantage would remove the need to manage employees, earn revenue or keep improving a product over time.
Chen expected more varied founder backgrounds to produce new businesses, alongside high failure rates. His historical examples included Facebook, Airbnb and Uber, whose founders illustrated different combinations of experience, technology and ways of reaching customers.
Investor preferences could reinforce those patterns, Chen argued, because founders who fit an accepted profile might find it easier to attract further funding. That effect could matter particularly in early fundraising rounds assembled from multiple small investments.
Chen's conclusion called for reconsidering assumptions about founders without replacing them with blanket preferences for solo builders, specialists or creators. Sales, hiring, judgment and persistence could remain difficult even as coding becomes easier, he said.
