Today I am super excited to be talking with Katia Ameri. Katia is a partner at a16z and she is the force that created LA Tech Week. Katia is a Stanford grad who became Pear VC's first hire before starting her own skincare company, Mira. She is passionate about all things consumer, especially products where distribution is central. Given this, I am not at all surprised that Tech Week has grown like it has. Katia, great to see you on the eve of, you know, 14 days of straight events for you.

No, it's so exciting. And I'm so excited to finally be doing this with you and yeah, it is nuts.

Does everyone email you questions? Like, do you just get bombarded?

Yes, we get a lot of questions, but thankfully we now have a couple team members. So, we're all kind of triaging. But yes, I think that is part of the beauty of the team, the magic of tech week so far is that you get a personal connection with the team.

It's so amazing that sort of a16z has been able to facilitate it. It wouldn't happen without someone responding to everyone's questions.

Yeah, I think, I think what, what I've really loved about, a16z is that ecosystem is a huge pillar of ours. You know, we really care about investing in the ecosystem. And so TechWeek has been embraced by the firm as an initiative to really help us do that. You know, invest in the ecosystem.

Why does A16Z care about the ecosystem?

Yeah, it's a great question. I think there's, you know, many ways to answer that, but I think from our vantage point, we do a lot of work with the early stage seed ecosystem in the cities that we're really, you know, active in and how we initially met and, you know, the, the role that, you know, TenOneTen has played.

So, it's really, been an investment in being able to develop our co investment network, our, what we call upstream network, and build those relationships and hopefully, you know, build something that is, you know, of value for those folks that can become like a reason for us to interact and a lot of our own portfolio companies, also gets to leverage tech week and, use it as, an opportunity. what I like to say is like, it's like a go to market, activity for a lot of companies. It's like a really great way to. Build leads and get exposure.

Wait, so let's just talk about that for a second. I'm curious about what you just said on how you encourage companies to leverage the platform.
yeah, it's a great question. So when we first started this, it was actually, really just like an experiment that we ran in just LA. And when we first ran the experiment, we had no idea we were going to do it again. We had no idea we were going to scale it to more cities. it was just kind of a one-time experiment that we ran and we primarily did it, in tandem with seed investors. And actually, when we launched the very first tech week, we actually launched it with about 30ish events, which is crazy now that we, now we're at like a thousand, coming up, but we launched it with 30 and we launched it with the 30 of like, the kind of core, you know, stakeholders in the LA tech ecosystem.

So I think it was like the right kind of initial cohort to really, you know, start this with. And then, we kind of created that like open platform that you now see around tech week, where you can submit your event to, you know, the master calendar. And we saw a ton of virality that very first tech week, we actually ended it at a couple of hundred events

We saw people come from all over. Like Europe, the Middle East, different, you know, the opposite part of the coast. so we said, hey, yes, like there's a product market fit here in LA, but, you know, we actually have a thesis that this could work in more cities. So then we expanded to LA, SF and New York. We did it again in those same three cities because it went really well. And then we're now seeing like a bunch of use cases.
what have you seen work the best?

for the first time, we ran some level of analysis on, you know, attendees. and we now know that we have like, in New York, we had at least 30,000 unique people attend a tech week. In New York, we had about 740 events.

Looking at LA and SF, we're close to 1,100 events right now. So we're seeing so many different use cases when it comes to, talent and sourcing, there are a lot of engineers and prospective, you know, founders and attendants. so we're seeing a lot of kind of like technical events, events kind of focus on builders and engineers. Those do really well, a lot of hackathons, lead gen, , I think that's, that's a really big one that we're starting to see, like if you sell into the ecosystem in some way, Tech Week is a really great way for you to get customers like huge.

Do you think like the law firms or the banks like ever just be like, Oh my God, we are so maxed out all of a sudden tech week is a thing they all have to budget for.

I think what's really cool is that, a lot of banks and law firms specifically are, focusing their efforts on Tech Week,

So they're creating a lot of new events during tech week, but they're actually taking a lot of their existing events that they would do in other times of the year and then doing it during tech week because you get more leads, you get more exposure if you do it during tech week. I think that's it pattern that we're noticing all around, even noticing a lot of people, a lot of VCs, do their, LP days and LP summits during tech week.

So, Yeah, It is pretty cool that it's only been about two years. And we're now seeing you know, tech week is now becoming a part of people's kind of, overall kind of marketing strategies.

Yeah, no, that's interesting that everyone's now planning their event. Plan your event to be this week, were there things you were worried about Like, Oh, we got to say no to any of these sorts of events or just things when you were starting or like, I don't want it to become like that.

Yeah, it's a really great question. I think every city has its own culture and flavor. And I think what's really kind of beautiful about the platform that it really is open, and it really takes the shape of whatever organically that city decides to host and do.

so, I thought your event. That very first tech week is still one of, like, I think the coolest events that's ever existed because it is just so LA, you did a surf event for GPs that very first tech week. And that ended up being like one of the most popular events that very first tech week.

It was extremely LA. Yeah, I think we've kind of loved, embracing how people end up, you know, choosing to host at each of these three cities.

And in general, I think what's really cool is that unlike a traditional conference where you get like thousands of people in a room, but in the case of tech week, you're like going into these, you know, spaces where it's like 20, 25 max, like 50 to 75 people and those events are like highly curated and creative, like a surf event. So I think that's kind of the magic of it. And then every city has its own flavor.

How so?

I would say LA is the most social, out of all of them. Yeah.

Like a lot of like happy hours?

A lot of happy hours, but you're not just happy hours, but like creative events, whether it's like a surfing, session that you

I just signed up for pickleball

Pickleball Yeah, very, very athletic community we have out here. Um, notice that SF is very, like content focused, and, some people say every week is tech week in SF. I think what we've noticed is that, in order to stand out, and to really attract a crowd, you need to kind of go deeper into a topic and just do something that has like a little bit more of like a specific angle to it to really draw out the community that you want to draw out.
And I would say New York is like a mix of LA and SF, and I would say I've been really blown away by just the sheer number of founders and VCs in New York and just the sheer size of, of New York this year.

Yeah. What about just within a16z? Like, I think you told me that a16z didn't do co-branding?

Yeah, you know, I'm not sure if we've done much co-branding pre tech week, but I can say that we haven't, we didn't do much of it, at least. And so, with tech week, we definitely, kind of charted new territory.

we now have, sponsors for tech week, which is really exciting. And so tech week is now brought to you by a16z and our sponsors. his year, our kind of super sponsors are, HSBC and Fenwick.

Well, we always appreciate the sponsors. Thank you. HSBC and Fenwick. And Andrew Chen, because Andrew Chen was sort of your co conspirator on this at

Totally.

why you guys, how did you say, oh, I know this is going to be successful. We know how to make this successful.

Totally. So, think there's kind of a couple of parts to it. So, in terms of like, why that very first LA tech week, you know, what we noticed was that, you know, post pandemic, uh, we were investing a lot more outside of the Bay area than before.

And we, the time, both Andrew Chen and I were on the consumer investing team. And we just noticed that we had made a lot more investments in LA. and so Andrew Chen kind of noticed this trend and wanted to double down on LA. And, at the time I was, in LA, and I was kind of working on some like LA initiatives, and it kind of ended up being like a natural fit for me to, to join.

Sorry. Is this you joining a16z?

Yes, Okay, wait, wait, yeah, tell me that story.

okay. Okay. so, I was saying, a16z, started to invest more. outside of the Bay Area, and LA was one of the first, places, at least on the consumer team that we noticed we were investing a lot more. And coincidentally, I was also in LA at the time building community out here. And, you know, he was looking to bring someone on the team to help him build out his sort of LA strategy. And it ended up, we ended up meeting and it ended up being like a really natural fit. And so I ended up joining and one of the first kind of things that we did together when I joined was LA tech week.
Wait, okay, so you were in LA. Joining a16z, I feel like, is like a dream job for so many people. What exactly where you doing? Why did Andrew Chen think, oh, you know, I need Katia on the a16z LA team?

It's a great question. I got really lucky, to meet the team and, and to join, especially because, being able to play a role in, you know, helping to kind of build the fabric of LA Tech it's been a passion of mine forever. My family is based out here. I grew up here and then I moved to the Bay to go to college.

And to kind of in my mind, I was like, I'm going to build my career in the Bay. And then one day I'm going to move back to LA. and so when there was this opportunity to actually join a16z and actually you know, help, build, you know, Andreessen, you know, presence out here

It was sort of like a dream job. But, yeah, you know, I think it was like a little bit of luck. Honestly, I was working on some projects. and then, Andrew was in town and, I think someone suggested that we meet and we had dinner at Osby in Venice, which I'd never been to, but it's now one of my favorite restaurants.

And we connected and then that turned into meeting more folks on the team. And then. that turned into joining, but in terms of like what I was working on at the time, I was working on some community related initiatives, you know, kind of out of passion, and then it kind of became like a full-time thing once I joined A16Z.

I was working on my own company at the time, and I, didn't want to have to move back to the bay after the pandemic. And so on the side I was like, how do I invest in building just like selfishly, like my own network out here? How do I make it so that I don't feel like I have to go running back to the bay as soon as, you know, things are open again. And so I was, doing a couple things on the side. Like I, I had a, a hacker house in, Hollywood which turned into like an article that was written that got a lot of people's attention.

So when, founders working creator economy and moving to LA, they'd message me, and then I don't know if you like, remember this, it's just like total tangent. But, I now I'm remembering, I think this is where Andrew might've first seen my name was through the zoom bachelorette. This is like May of 2020. it went viral in clubhouse, which obviously, you know, Andrew, um, it's an investor in.

So you have made a, on multiple occasions, content that's really gone viral or you really have a talent for distribution. You said you have a talent and a passion for distribution. Like what makes Distribution work?

So I am obsessed with distribution because I think product is great, I love product, but I think like just, I'm a big believer that like distribution is king and without really having like a good distribution strategy, you just don't have the luxury of getting the product into people's hands.

And, actually Mira the company that, I was working on before I started, it actually, turned into a newsletter, like primarily a newsletter. It's kind of funny because like tech week now is, mostly, like the heart of it is still like a newsletter. Newsletter slash community.

And I think building something that is like very community driven allows you to really kind of create and launch products and test them with the community. So it's not distribution in the sense that number of readers. It's like an engaged communities. is a distinction.

Yes, I think community matters a ton, and being able to kind of find levers to kind of organically grow that community. I think with tech week, what's been really kind of exciting is that we've noticed this sort of like B2B to C motion that works really well.

So the more kind of partners that we bring on, and the more that they kind of market their events and expose tech week to their audiences, the more kind of we grow. And, all of this is like very much possible, because of Andrew's mentorship and Andrew, you know, he wrote the book, you know, cold start problem. he's big growth expert. So, also got to build this with somebody who is very entrepreneurial. And also very much, uh, a growth minded person.

So I think his vision also has been like absolutely critical and like really pressing on the gas when it comes to growth as well.

Yeah, interesting. But you guys, it's really interesting because a16z, correct me if I'm wrong, hasn't done any press around tech week. So you're growing, but it has to be more organic than sort of leveraging the press engine.

Yes. I think what's been awesome about Tech Week is that it's been this like bottoms up motion where, we are allowing the You know, ecosystem to sort of tell their story. And then we sort of built this platform for folks to tell whatever story they want to tell. and I think it's just, it's a lot more authentic if, you kind of just create a platform for the ecosystem to be able to talk about, Um, and then we're sort of like behind it, in some way by kind of just helping to facilitate.

So I think like we kind of embrace social really as a firm as, a frontier for storytelling, I think, probably seen this, but we have a lot of really active people on X on LinkedIn at the firm and, instead of having the press or having someone else tell our story, I think we sort of take things into our own hands.

And like, for tech week. what we kind of see our role as is we are sort of like the coordinators of the big marketing push and making sure that everybody's marketing efforts on social kind of comes together is cohesive and it's like a rising tide that lifts all ships
In New York, we saw like, a couple hundred million impressions, for tech week so , it's pretty exciting, to see kind of what, what happens when you really encourage individual voices to really tell their story.

Yeah, and I think, what you told me about a16z is each of you can speak about your product or your area of expertise.

Yes, I think I think that's sort of goal is to, you know, be able to just make sure that like it, an expert in our area, if we're going to talk about it.

No, I just hadn't thought about, the way you guys operate, which is you're very active on social and you're talking about your area of expertise.
Yeah. And I would say most people, have some sort of like thesis. And I would say, pretty much everybody is sort of like a specialist in like their own unique area.

The thing that strikes me about your voice, just having had this conversation, I thought that you were really increasing a16z’s presence in ecosystems. But now when I feel like I hear so much more is like, you're passionate about the community as sort of your starting point.

yes, I am before. and I think that tech week in general is very much like I think community and helping build community in each of the ecosystems. It's like super integral to, what we're all about

How is a16z approaching LA right now?

so, we, have actually a lot of people here. I just checked our LA Slack channel just before this, just to double check, and we have over 50 people in LA, which is nuts. It's a lot of people, from so many different teams and verticals, and I would say, you know, the core kind of investment teams that are here.

The games is, the biggest one. and we just finally opened our office, And so we've been very excited to open up, the doors there. And we now have speed run, actually being hosted in the a16z office

Tell me more, just fill our listeners in on Speedrun.

Yeah. So, Speedrun is our kind of accelerator, that, you know, invests in the intersection of, tech and gaming companies, which really mean the intersection of, tech and, you AI, infra, AR, VR, Web3, and, we go super early with speed run.

We're, you know, often like the very first check, and. We are on our, third cohort right now. And this, cohort, It's actually the first cohort that we did in LA, We had awesome, speakers. We had, Sean Rad, the co founder of Tinder. We had Spencer Raskoff, the co founder of Zillow. We had Nikita Beer, the co founder of Gas.

Good, you're highlighting, the best of LA, getting the engineers excited to be located here. So these people, some, a lot of these, um, people in the cohort were at your office.

yes. And yeah, so we've been having, you know, a ton of, programming, it's been like bustling. Super fun to work out of. it's like a three story building in Santa Monica. I don't know if you've been, but it's awesome. definitely come by.

I will be there. I'm coming on. Is it your podcast? I don't know. I'm going to come by next week or the following week.

Yes, you're going to come to our LA Tech Week studio recording session. So we're going to flip the script.

Excited for that. how should I think about a16z? Like, I still primarily think of a16z for a Series A and beyond, are you interested in seeing a lot of seed companies too?

yeah. So, it's not really like a one size fits all, sort of thing. so every vertical and every team has bit of a different thesis. but in general, we definitely look at seed. Yes.

God, it's such a different style and scale o firm. Um, anything else before we leave tech week entirely? Uh, do you want to tell any stories of that first tech week? that was just super nuts and awesome.

yes, that very first LA tech week came together so fast. So from idea to reality, it was think like six weeks from literally like pitch deck to we are here in tech week.

and it came together quickly because We were able to rally, you know, folks that really cared about LA and it was like a major team effort to get that first tech week off the ground. so once we had the green light to make it happen, I remember giving you a call and I was like, Hey, Minnie, this like crazy idea and I remember, actually remember where I was. I was like in my parents house, just like walking around kind of nervously, seeing how, you'd react and you just like jumped in with two feet and you were like, yeah, for sure. What do you want me to host? And we riffed and you said you would do the surfing event.

made a couple more of those, you know, phone calls. I remember calling Anna Barbara. And a few other folks. And I think it was just like, people just really care about LA. And so, I think that was really kind of like a big part of what helped get that first one off the ground. It was just like, there's a really, really passionate, passionate folks out here that genuinely care.

And yeah, it was, super, super, super scrappy so like tech stack was like super scrappy. It was just like a Google sheet.

And then from there, yeah, it just kind of like took off, but it was kind of nuts as it was happening because Like the flywheel was sort of unstoppable at a certain point. So, thankfully it hasn't ever really slowed since

I think that's right. I think it was, um, the flywheel happened right where, I think people, in LA are very, like, supportive of the community, but I think people were a little nervous when A16Z first showed up with a big presence.

I mean, you guys are with 10 people. You're bigger than most of us Seed funds in town, but it was so well executed and obviously meant to be helpful that you built a ton of Goodwill. People jumped into host, and then the people who hadn't jumped in looked a little noticeably left out.
The element of FOMO that you touched on was real for sure to anybody who was like, uh, like, let me just like, you jumped in when, it was risky, they didn't know what it was going to be, but you just kind of jumped in and said, yes, I think. And then I think there was like some people that were like, oh, this is like really interesting, but let's see how it does first.

And then let me, you know, jump in. yeah. And then at a certain point, it's like, Hey, are you. here in the LA ecosystem?

If you don't have an event on the calendar, because so many folks were flying in that you didn't have an event on the calendar, then, yeah, there was some FOMO there. but you kind of need like an initial flywheel to kick it off.

And I, and I think we had like the right people, like they're, I think what I've learned about LA and like what I love about LA when, what makes LA very different from, you know, the Bay area, is that LA is very, very tightly knit. It is like a small and mighty community and is extremely collaborative.
and yeah, and I think like the other thing that you kind of mentioned, I thought was like interesting about LA is that, people haven't necessarily been super loud about LA. I think LA is just kind of always just been happening. It's been real,

And I think La Tech Week was one of the first moments, that there was an opportunity to like actually put a spotlight on all of the action that's here.
It engendered so much goodwill in the community, that first one, and subsequent. It just, I think it really established A16Z's presence, but also its intention. Like it was very much seen as a supportive of, especially the smaller firms in town, which is pretty much everyone, but no, I remember you calling and then a number of us calling each other and saying like, you know, are you doing this? And is Katia totally crazy for trying to get this done in six weeks?

I was! It was crazy. it was definitely risky. I was so nervous. But I think it was good. I think the pressure to make sure that, everybody who was vouching for it, had a good experience, It was like, there's like one thing to like, fail your, you know, a project for yourself. And there's another one to like, fail it for a bunch of other people. So I think, I think the pressure was good.

It was amazing. So tell me a little bit, just looking out, like, what should we be thinking? Like, What do you have up your sleeve for the future of TechWeek?

Yeah. So, one of the things that we're launching for the very first time on LA and SF Tech Week this year is a marketplace. And the goal there is really to kind of double down on what we just mentioned, which is, a lot of folks are using TechWeek as a way to get their products out to the, you know, greater ecosystem. And so we're spinning up Marketplace, stay tuned for that.

It's like a very like V1 to actually create a place to direct people towards specific offers that will only be available during TechWeek.

Amazing. So, is that like, you know, credits for my use of a law firm? Or is it like I can buy, you know, this watch or drink or something at my marketplace? Or is it a talent marketplace?

Yeah, yeah, great question. And I think there's like so many different things we can do if we can get the flywheel for this product, going. It could be all those things. The way that we're thinking about it right now is, like, what are products that can help people grow their businesses? so that's kind of the initial kind of angle.

But yeah, so in the early, early phases and right after this, I'm going to go back to working on the marketplace and hopefully have a V1 for, for everybody.

Amazing. so, let's shift, , off of tech week, which is, imminent and exciting, tell me a little bit more about you. You grew up in LA. Where did you go to high school?

I love LA. I was, Born and raised in, West LA near UCLA. I'm a Persian. There's like a huge Persian community, where I grew up. Terangeles is what we like to call Westwood, lots of good Persian food recs if, you know, care for those at some point.

I went to Marlboro high school, all girls school in Hancock park, and then went to college in the Bay, went to Sanford, got into tech, stayed out there. And then when COVID hit, ended up kind of coming back to LA because my family was here

What did your parents do when you were in high school?

I only, I only really knew entrepreneurship growing up. Like I didn't really know, like people had jobs other than starting a business. I didn't know what tech entrepreneurship was, but, yeah, my, my, I kind of come from a family of like entrepreneurs. My dad's in the energy space, you know, my, my mom's an artist.

And yeah, like all my family members, aunts, uncles, are like more traditional business owners.

How would your friends describe you?

Loud, intense

I'm the same.

Those are probably my top two.

what else? Yeah, I think like loud and intense probably.

I like that.Well, it has been great getting to know you and, and being a part of this community together. Congratulations on building something so big and important to the community here. And I loved hearing all about it.

Thank you for having me. And honestly, I think, you know, the, the beauty of T week is that it is like so much more than, you know, any one person or anyone, you know, company or firm behind it. It is like truly a collaborative effort like it only exists because people want these tech weeks to exist So, thank you.

Awesome. I'm so excited for tech week. I was talking with Laurent last year and I was like, what are you doing this weekend? It was right before tech week. He said like, I'm going to go to bed at 9 30. I'm going to carb load. I'm getting ready

that's amazing. I think the last LA TechWeek, I think I, I stopped tweeting, tweeting about it. So like, this is embarrassing, but I was just like, tweeting all my Red Bulls, and I think people got, like, really concerned, so I stopped. But yeah, I think I finished, like, a whole case last time.

Yeah. well, congratulations. I'll ship more Red Bull your way.

Yeah. thank you.