Inside a16z's new academy: $40M, no grades and proof of work

Key points

Key takeaways from the Sourcery interview with Gagan Biyani, founder and CEO of the newly announced Andreessen Horowitz Academy (September 2026):

The launch. Andreessen Horowitz's academy is a post-high-school, residential, unaccredited program in San Francisco for young builders, run as a for-profit startup; working with Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz and Eric Torenberg, Biyani raised $40 million to carry it to profitability. The founding-class fellowship is a one-year, tuition-free program starting September 2027, with applications open now.

Founding partners. Anthropic, Coinbase, Meta, Nvidia, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit and Stripe are founding partners, providing curricular support, compute credits, an advisory group on evolving talent needs, and hiring pipelines; more than 30 additional hiring partners are lined up, including Shopify, and Nvidia is a core partner giving students access to the latest frontier knowledge.

No grades — proof of work. The school rejects the credit-hour college model: it prioritises proof of work over grades and asks applying students 'you did what?'. Curriculum keeps 75–80% of time for student projects (research, learning and building), paired with didactic classes on product sense, AI architecture, negotiating and interpersonal skills, plus weekly pod check-ins with mentors. Its model draws on Alpha School, YC, A16Z Speedrun and Oxford tutorials.

The talent argument. Biyani believes an AI-native builder with high agency and people skills is 'bulletproof' versus classic consulting-banking tracks; startups are a 10-year slog, so students shouldn't chase their first idea or take money just because it's there. The academy supports multiple paths: join a company, start now, or spend two to three years in industry first.

An 'AI optimistic' bet. The school wants 'AI boomers', not doomers: students get credits and compute to build with AI rather than having it banned. As software ate the world, Biyani expects AI to eat it next, and he argues the talent war is real — leading AI companies are hiring relentlessly, so graduates should aim to be in the top 1%.

Backers. Investors and angels include Adam D'Angelo, Tobi Lutke and Shyam Sankar, among others; later revenue streams are planned through tuition, corporate partnerships and equity in student-founded businesses, with a two-year, tuition-charging program due in 2028 pending regulatory approval.

Read more: Sourcery on YouTube