Alex Kolicich Profile Banner
Alex Kolicich Profile
Alex Kolicich

@AlexKolicich

2,923
Followers
944
Following
42
Media
870
Statuses

Founding GP @8VC Former @PalantirTech , @Google , Clarium, @UWaterloo Interested in IT, BioIT, Macro, Public Equities

San Francisco, CA
Joined February 2014
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
4 months
Gemini is wild. These are real people who actually existed. I guess they fine-tuned the wokeness in at the end and so it forgot elements of reality
Tweet media one
176
377
4K
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 year
SF is dead though 🤔
Tweet media one
135
85
793
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
4 months
Reality: the Traitorous 8 who founded Fairchild Semiconductor
Tweet media one
15
36
734
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
4 months
@mr_james_c Seriously. It’s a super-intelligent system that denies actual reality
15
10
552
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
5 months
Just walked into the 8VC office! E/acc accelerate or die
Tweet media one
20
7
315
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
28 days
SF events are different No alcohol at the @ollama meetup. Just La Croix, Water, Celsius and Red Bull
Tweet media one
112
11
303
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
4 months
Southern Ontario (Toronto/Ottawa/Waterloo) is the biggest sleeper corridor in the History of Computation. Pioneered: first internet search engine (OpenText), compilers (Watcom), Elliptic Curve Cryptography (Certicom), GPUs (ATI), smart phones (RIM/Blackberry), Optical Networking
14
46
218
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
5 months
New @8vc gear just dropped 🔥
Tweet media one
42
3
204
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
4 months
Data from Carta suggests seed valuations are very near all-time highs We see this ourselves, despite the Seed-> Series A conversion being at all-time lows Wacky market
Tweet media one
17
16
156
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
You can send Term Sheets from anywhere
@vvkgopalan
Vivek Gopalan
2 months
@AlexKolicich on the grind
Tweet media one
1
0
20
9
2
132
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
7 months
OpenAI's unique structure could drive this strange decision-making The for-profit is an LLC, LLCs are not governed by Delaware C-Corp law The for-profit is governed by the non-profit board, which is bound by the charter. One of the charter principles is long-term safety. It
Tweet media one
6
19
126
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
8 months
San FranLos Angelas
Tweet media one
8
1
122
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
28 days
One of the more surprising things I've learned in venture is that "reputation" often doesn't catch up to you I know many VCs who act unethically, lie, or abandon companies that I see with a good brand and winning competitive deals Few people do real reference checks
25
8
110
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
5 months
My advice to new investors: Prioritize opportunism to secure investments in top-tier companies by any means necessary I see too much focus on valuation caps or ownership targets. If you find a generational company; just get in. Be flexible with ownership stakes, consider
9
5
108
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
Excited to be investing again in @ScottWu46 and the @cognition_labs team after knowing Scott for nearly a decade Have been blown away by the product. The capability slope is incredible, and believe the UI will inform how future AI-native apps are built
4
6
109
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
It’s awful don’t come here
Tweet media one
12
4
104
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
7 months
Greg is one of the greatest technologists of our time. This is a monumental loss to the company, which was perfectly positioned to capitalize on the defining tech of our generation It suggests there probably isn't a huge *for cause* scandal Greatest own-goal in startup history?
@gdb
Greg Brockman
7 months
After learning today’s news, this is the message I sent to the OpenAI team:
Tweet media one
2K
5K
36K
5
4
96
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
11 months
@McFaul Michael, this is a silly argument and you know it. US Citizens should have an interest in what their government does more than what another does. You know “whataboutism” is a poor argument. Do you think the use is a war crime? As someone who has family in a prior war zone, I do!
8
3
76
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
7 months
We’re in the “grind it out” phase of the venture market. Let’s see who on both sides of the table has the stamina and expertise to really build for the long-term.
5
6
78
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 year
Moves like this cement the fact that @anduriltech is a generational company. Defense is complex. You should be a multi-product company to recognize maximum value. This is a super strategic and smart acquisition that will enable many more products.
0
9
76
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 month
@aish_caliperce I think this very well could be the case. We will demand ever more powerful and vertical software
5
2
76
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
3 months
Startups who were able to maintain a war chest have had their runways extended meaningfully by high interest income Really incredible how material it is to many companies You can run a medium-sized team on the interest from a Tiger round
4
3
71
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 year
Happy July 4th to everyone! Incredibly proud to be an American this 4th. Still love Canada too :). Both countries have been foundational to me. But American has given me opportunities I could have never dreamed of and today is it's day. Unapologetically proud. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Tweet media one
5
1
71
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
6 months
Doesn’t matter if you’re in SF, NYC, LA, or whatever. Just get back to work
5
2
71
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 month
The talent density @OpenAI has is insane. Legends leave semi-regularly and they still have the best team by a wide margin. I hope @gdb can stick around and be like @JeffDean . When you can retain great technical minds for decades at a time and give them long-lived resources you
1
0
69
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
Oat milk is gross and tastes like chemicals The fact that Blue Bottle defaults to using oat milk and accidentally prepares my latte with it, despite my requests otherwise, makes me not want to go there
21
1
67
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
7 months
Last week the head of Gradient Ventures announced she will be leaving There is a ton of hidden VC turnover that is not yet announced Firms are bloated with the new normal in dealflow. Some GPs don't want it grind it out in a new cycle Big changes ahead
5
2
63
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
8 months
Every quarter I’ll be publishing my thoughts on the venture funding markets + macro + startup musings. For Q3, I outline how I think our new normal is just the old normal of 2018 — we are unlikely to see any improvement in funding markets for some time.
5
4
63
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
@DavidSacks Find it quite distasteful to see foreign dignitaries criticizing American citizens for sharing what they see is the American interest. Americans are the right to debate the predominant American interest in this situation, whatever it may be, without foreign influence
51
1
55
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
4 months
There's wild 2021-level stuff going on in the growth markets Huge amounts of dry powder are meeting a (lower) supply of great companies, and it's 2021 multiples all over again
6
1
57
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 year
@SCOTUSblog Seems like a poor decision, I only consume your content via Twitter. I hope you reconsider or offer a subscription offering to offset the $8/month. Or you can use the platform without the blue check!
11
0
54
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
5 months
Excited to present my latest Q4 2023 - State of Venture Update & 2024 Outlook: "80% Growth is the New 200%". In this update, I explore the dynamic shifts in AI, inflation outlook, changes in the Venture Capital market, and BioTech as we enter 2024.
4
9
49
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
4 months
Have to say my favorite thing about NewSF is that it’s highly technical engineers/founders on the grind again Get excited on a weekly basis with people just hacking cool shit Not as many tourists as we had peak bubble Back to like when I moved here 15 years ago
5
1
50
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
@darrenmarble Bad advice
0
0
48
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 year
Protectionism/cronyism in Canada is something I've fought for many years. Canada is a great but has policies which protect the establishment over average Canadians and immigrants. The dairy quota is one of the most egregious. They'd rather dump milk than feed hungry families.
4
9
46
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
15 days
We need to fix this. The deindustrialization of Europe is coming about due to the Ukraine war. It's external. Canada by nature should be a rich country. Natural resources, stable institutions, education, free access to the largest economy Canada should be as rich as the US
Tweet media one
10
1
47
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
Nutrition in America is getting wild
Tweet media one
9
1
39
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
This is a pretty pivotal and important moment. Contracts like this don't often go outside of the major primes. Anduril is a category leader, and doing it in style!
@anduriltech
Anduril Industries
2 months
The @usairforce has selected Anduril to design, manufacture, and test production-representative Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). In this era of great power competition, there is no time to waste on business as usual. We look forward to delivering CCAs on schedule, within
Tweet media one
193
514
5K
1
1
38
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
If you have this in your office I’m bullish on your company
Tweet media one
1
0
37
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 month
Posted my Q1 2024 State of Venture Update - From Devin to Robotic Foundation Models: AI's Transformative Potential I give updates on the venture market, what Devin teaches about AI-first application software, Robotics, LLM model convergence, and more...
3
8
34
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
5 years
Difficulty hiring engineers in the SF Bay Area has continued to increase exponentially. I’ve never seen it this bad, almost every company I know has opened a second engineering office which grows significantly faster than SF. It’s becoming table stakes. @JoinTerminal @jackabraham
1
5
33
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
11 months
Excited to host @amasad for a fireside chat at our next Chat8VC event August 9th at 6:30pm in our SF office. Demos to follow. If you're interested in LLMs & Replit, please join us! @8vc
6
5
33
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
8
0
33
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
5 months
@lucy_guo City is back
2
0
34
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 year
Truly perplexed at the lack of direction from the Fed/FDIC about SVB and their deposits. Speed matters here
4
2
31
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
3 years
Very excited for the @blendlabsinc team on their IPO. Fun to have been involved in here since day 1! 🚀🚀🚀
@blendlabsinc
Blend
3 years
The bell has rung 🔔🔔🔔 Today we *officially* join @NYSE as $BLND!
Tweet media one
10
43
392
1
3
31
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
Late in my career, I learned the power of a good board: it can be a competitive advantage Focus adding independent members that value, and you'll gather a team that boosts your company in ways you couldn't by hiring alone—offering guidance, connections, and credibility
1
1
30
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
With these new model releases, we're seeing some serious convergence in LLMs across providers. That's making switching costs near 0. Let's say this continues (it may not with GPT-5 or more infra built by providers), what's the right analog for the business? I always thought
7
1
29
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
5 months
@BillAckman @MIT Could probably do this pretty easily with a good developer, some AWS credits, and access to OpenAI API
3
0
27
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
4 years
Market has been down for two days straight. We should see the Fed intervene soon.
4
4
28
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
5 months
Don’t stop believing
2
0
28
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
Uber needs a “fastest to arrive vehicle of any type” option. How did this get overlooked for so long?
1
0
27
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 year
So generative AI just saved SF right? Befitting a gold rush town.
5
0
26
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
4 months
Thought I'd try this myself and it's pretty funny. As a student of Serbian history I can tell you there are some errors here, haha. I'm 100% bought into the intent, but something went wrong in the training steps.
Tweet media one
7
3
27
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
3 years
Alloy is building the platform layer to democratize drug discovery (antibodies today). It has a broad and positive-sum mission to make development partnerships high-impact and low-friction. So happy to be involved, may the best drug win! @errikanderson
0
4
27
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
Contrary to popular belief, AI is likely to boost all wages, not decrease In AI-enhanced sectors wages will rise as wages follow the marginal productivity of labor In non-productive sectors, Baumol’s Cost-Disease means those wages will also rise AI will be wage-enhancing
5
1
26
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
7 months
Big if true
@0interestrates
rahul
7 months
i am hearing reports that the personnel issues that led to the board's actions involved discovery of a group of researchers secretly training the new GPDeez model without the board's knowledge. the board reportedly went nuts after finding out about this
37
57
2K
3
1
26
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 month
"If you’re going to lose a deal, lose efficiently" - Recent board meeting wisdom
2
0
25
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
7 months
@gurgavin Excited for investors to learn nuances of LLC law here :)
7
1
25
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
7 months
Can’t believe this app is free
2
0
25
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 year
The "let it fail" crowd neglects to understand that we all know there are a few banks "too big to fail" Inaction leads to concentration in big banks at the expense of regional banks Actions can be taken that will cost taxpayers nothing but save the system, but window is closing
3
5
25
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 year
Take me back to SF please! Wild orange sky day in NYC
Tweet media one
3
1
24
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
SF Is back and seems like it got an upgrade. Everybody is here or always coming through town, yet there's very little traffic and you can always find parking.
4
1
24
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
7 months
In a crisis, we learn who is sovereign
1
1
23
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
4 years
First time voting today as a US citizen. Thanks to everyone for all the reminders!
1
0
23
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
Wow Tiger raised a new fund! Have to respect the hustle and ability to stay in the game. Venture fund brands may have a longer tail of life than mainframes or legacy dbs. There truly is no such thing as bad publicity.
1
1
23
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
Building product is one of the more sustainable and least-recognized moats in software. Above switching costs & other types of vendor lock-in. Launch good product at a fast pace over time and your competitors can never catch up without a major platform transition.
1
1
22
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
3 months
I'm going to be disrupted!
@andrewdsouza
Andrew D'Souza
3 months
Today is my birthday, so I decided to birth something fun and useful we’ve been working on. Introducing @MeetBoardy , the AI board member you deserve. Over the years, I’ve had great board members and not so great board members, but one thing was always true: every single one was
18
7
106
3
0
23
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
Wow, Devin from @cognition_labs is impressively good/capable The knowledge-work that will be addressed by AI-enabled control panels in the next decade are going to be incredible Like looking into the future
1
0
22
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 year
Heartwarming story from @8vc portco @OrcaBio . Mikhail Rubin needed a stem-cell transplant but was too old for most cutting-edge therapies. It so happens his son-in-law Nate started Orca which was used to save his life!
2
0
21
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
Immigrants are the most dynamic part of our economy and the current administration seems to prefer hollow rhetoric over action. Almost every single aspect of the system has unreasonable delays (Visas, Naturalization, Residency) and quotas are unchanged. We can do better!
@JTLonsdale
Joe Lonsdale
2 years
Thread: for 2+ years the State Dept. has been bungling the US visa system. The wait time in New Delhi for a tourist visa is >800 days! Are we supposed to just accept gross government incompetence nowadays? In tomorrow’s @WSJ I argue that we shouldn’t...
99
409
4K
2
4
22
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
@lpolovets @Google @gmail It is quite stunning that has persisted as long as it has. Default to the login that initiated the request, so simple.
0
0
22
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
7 months
Your sublease is my opportunity
0
1
22
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
24 days
@absoluttig Interesting -- the value-capture point may be correct. But I think you are overvaluing the present reality of model training cost vs projecting cost curve improvements. Over time compute will get cheaper and model training-efficiency will improve. Even over the past year we've
1
1
21
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
3 years
Big news from @wisprAI ! Excited to support @tankots and Sahaj in building revolutionary thought-powered interfaces. check it out! @8vc
3
2
19
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
6 months
"My will to survive exceeds almost everybody else's will to kill me." -Jensen Huang (NVIDIA founder)
1
0
20
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
1 year
Congrats to @casetext team & @Jacob_Heller on the acquisition by Thomson Reuters Jake and team are some of the most dedicated and forward-looking entrepreneurs I've ever worked with. They've worked on AI in legal tech for many years. Always ahead!
1
6
20
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
Beautiful day in Napa for the ⁦ @8vc ⁩ CEO summit. ⁦
Tweet media one
0
0
20
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
6 months
It seems the majority of inflation relief in the US is coming from the fact that every developed economy is close to recession (driving goods deflation) Seems misguided for the Fed to pivot with this backdrop as the US economy and the federal deficit is still RED HOT
Tweet media one
4
0
20
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
I see many people not understand the idea of Paid-in-Capital (PIC) in the context of market capitalization. Taking $15b to create a $4b company is not particularly exciting. Many companies now are trading where MktCap < PIC -- destroyed value. $WE $COMP
2
1
18
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
It's strange to see attacks early-companies are getting when they admit early employees have to work a lot. Startups are hard and the default mode is failure. The only advantage is speed and hustle. Most people have the option of a big vs small company, small means hard work
2
0
19
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
5 months
Let’s go Mr. IRRELEVANT
Tweet media one
1
0
18
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
11 months
@McFaul I'm not a international lawyer either so my point was more of a moral one than a legal one (it should be illegal, but it probably isn't). The issue is their remnant effects on the civilian population well past the end of the war. Which is why most of our allies in the civilized
7
2
17
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
3 years
Happy July 4th!!! Very thankful to the country for taking me in a decade ago. Proud to celebrate the opportunities it has provided and great friends I’ve been able to make. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🚀🚀🚀
0
0
18
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
Software multiples seem to have stabilized over the past quarter. My view is that we are 1-2 quarters away from a bottom -- probably another ~20-25% decline ahead. We'll see an earnings-recession early next year (when it gets very bad) as the bottom. Cos need to get through 2023.
Tweet media one
1
1
17
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
7 months
Biotech VC markets are some of the most inefficient private markets in the world Dearth of capital for mid-stage non-incubated companies Valuations are haphazard and often priced off of the last post (not comps) Insider bailouts Big opportunity for a new fund in 1-2 years
1
1
18
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
3 months
Spotting of @ollama across the world. First meetup in Paris!
Tweet media one
1
1
17
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
Wispr ( @wisprAI ) is leading the way in developing commercial non-invasive BCI interfaces. Here Philip & I explain why we partnered with them!
1
1
16
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
5 months
After missing as a first-mover in LLMs, Zuck/Meta's strategy seems to be to salt the earth for anyone looking to monetize base foundation models Respect the vindictiveness and happy for the push towards Open Source
4
0
18
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
5 months
Really incredible results coming out of DeepMind. "Solving olympiad geometry without human demonstrations". Solved 25/30 Olympiad-level problems within the competition time-limit. Amazing with such a small team.
1
0
18
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
I think a major reason companies initially overestimated remote-work productivity is we conflated WFH during a pandemic with WFH in a normal world. They are different environments and we can't expect productivity to be equal
3
3
17
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
3 months
The @hume_ai demo is a cool POC for emotion-aware LLM voice interaction. Could be a good basis for a digital assistant. Rough around the edges but pretty impressive they got the latency down to being almost imperceptible. h/t @rauchg for flagging
1
3
14
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 months
Totally agree Early on in a startup focus has value. To be great, at some point you need to make the decision to be expansive and ambitious.
@emilmichael
Emil Michael
2 months
Imagine your biggest investor being a “low grade antagonist” who says “anti-focus ain’t cheap”…Uber with Eats and global at $150b would have been Lyft at $7b! No great entrepreneur can ultimately work with a catastrophist. Always ends badly and sadly.
12
9
192
0
1
17
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
2 years
The level of engagement I see on both sides of the table with in-person pitches vs virtual is stark. It should be a serious consideration when fundraising to give the pitch in-person again. Zoom saves time but your hit rate will likely be lower. Same with boards.
0
0
17
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
3 months
Many young investors err by overestimating how easy it is to sell a business and its value, leading to unwise funding decisions. Selling a company, especially at the desired time, is challenging. Achieving compelling value proves to be the exception rather than the norm.
2
0
17
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
3 years
We're bringing a Prime-like experience to everyone else.
0
1
17
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
8 months
Mr Irrelevant… love this guy
Tweet media one
0
0
16
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
4 years
Happy to be able to publicly announce Resilience, a collaboration between @8vc , @rtnarch , and the Resilience team. The company was started to improve biomanufacturing technology, quality and supply-chain resilience!
3
2
16
@AlexKolicich
Alex Kolicich
11 months
@garrytan They are losers who only know how to criticize/destroy. You know how to create/build.
0
0
16