The a16z Show
00:06:24 · Dhruv Gupta, S2
[00:06:24] S3: Yeah. And similarly for companies, we have a lot of awards that you can win by industry, but also general awards for things like talent density. We want, like, employees especially to be voting for their own companies because that tells us that, you know, this is a place that they like to work and probably a place that, like, other people would also like to work. [00:06:42] S2: That's really interesting too. So the people that would benefit from this information, it's not just individuals to figure out. It's also companies. So who are the... Who's this for? Like, what is all this information for? [00:06:57] S3: I think it's for everyone. I think we want Cosign to be the source of truth for the startup ecosystem. This should be where you go to get, like, any question you have answered, whether that's like, who in New York is building the coolest thing in biotech? Or like, who who was, like, the first person who discovered Sophia Duke? All of those questions should be able to be answered from Cosign, and I expect that, like, people will be interested in it. Companies will be interested in it. Agents will be interested in it. Yeah. We're really building this for everyone. [00:07:30] S2: Yeah. Agents will be interested.
00:07:31 · David Booth
[00:07:31] S0: Interesting. What types of questions could you not just go to your friendly LLM for an answer and get sort of something that's ingested off the public Internet, something that comes from a relationship graph? One thing that we, I mean, personally, I've spent most of, if not all of my career in pursuit of at this point is the idea that a huge amount of what happens around us comes down to what feels like coincidences. What feels like, you know, just meeting the right co founder at just the right time or, you know, conversation with a friend of a friend who introduces you to the person that offers you your breakout job or or the cold email you sent. It's it's been like how... Like, what happened to create that coincidence? There is the... I was tweeting about this earlier today, but the the Steve Jobs quote I've always loved, that you you can't meet... You can't plan to meet the person who changes your life, but you can certainly put yourself in the path of luck. And you can know that, you know, when that person appears, you can grab it with both hands and run with it. So one way I've started reframing Cosign is, yes, I I hope that it can be what Dhruv... I hope hope there can be a source of truth for for the the tech ecosystem. I hope there can be a place that you can go and ask questions that you can't ask anywhere else. But, like, in in its, you know, almost easiest form. I hope it's a place where you can increase your surface area for luck. Mhmm. It's a place where you can go and you know that if you build a profile out or if you browse the graph and and you sort of you teach cosign, you talk to... There is an agent. We're talking about that. You you ask cosign questions, then it's gonna help you put yourself in the path of luck. It's gonna help people find you. It's gonna help your future cofounder, you know, find you and realize that you might be into the same things. This idea of a coincidence of intent. How do you make two people who have the same hopes, dreams, and complementary skills come into each other's orbits soon? And the whole awards is really part of this. Like, maybe a winner of a design and a winner of an engineering award who otherwise never would have found each other have a better chance of doing that now. And if that happens, then they build something together, then we're all better off for it.
00:09:32 · S2
[00:09:32] S2: Yeah. It's pretty interesting because it feels like the legacy systems for maybe how you would traditionally get a job are outdated. Just the idea... Even just going to college, a lot of young people are like, do I need a degree to get my dream job? And you hear this in Silicon Valley, especially in San Francisco, where you have young ambitious people who just show up with a big dream. And for a lot of people, social media is that outlet that allows them to actually get an opportunity, land them their first job, open up doors. But it's not that clear of a path. It's really hard to build up a social media following and try to create those opportunities for yourself. So it feels like Cosign is almost this shortcut. You know, if you already have some of these people, you can get some of those opportunities that maybe social media traditionally could give you, but just get them through people you already know who can vouch for you.
00:10:23 · Dhruv Gupta
[00:10:23] S3: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I'm a senior at Penn right now. In my career, in my summer internship, sophomore and junior year, I went down the, like, very traditional path of like Morgan Stanley and Jane Street finance stuff. And to get those jobs, I was just like cold applying on Handshake every day checking new jobs. It was like horrible. It was not a fun experience at all. My first, like, experience in tech, as I mentioned earlier, was through Brent. Seeing like some of the work I'd done at Polymarket before and recognizing that I would be able to contribute at MTS. And him taking that chance on me really allowed me to get into this tech world. I think that everyone will have someone like that who can take that chance on them. And we want Cosign to be the place where that happens. And you can find the people who the people you trust are cosigning and like, think about giving them jobs. I think if we move more and more towards that as a means for hiring instead of like cold apply button mashing on LinkedIn or Handshake, it'll be like a better world for everyone.
00:11:31 · S2, Dhruv Gupta
[00:11:31] S2: I completely agree. I think there's one piece that you just alluded to, which is the person piece where now you can actually find people and opportunities because there's a person that vouched for you. But on the other end, there's also this company piece. I see it here, David, that you're pulling up. One thing I think that's interesting here is if you can get all the people who maybe have a traditional job that they don't love, maybe some people love their traditional jobs, so keep them wherever if you're excited there. But there's a lot of amazing talent stuck with golden handcuffs [00:12:02] S3: Yeah. [00:12:03] S2: Who, for whatever reason, don't know what else exist. And I have a fundamental belief that if you get all of these people to genuinely do genuinely do what they're passionate about and what they're exceptional and one of one in in an industry or solving a problem that a specific company is working towards. Yeah. That's how you change the world. Just get everyone to work on the thing that they were meant to be doing.
00:12:03 · S2, David Booth
[00:12:03] S2: Who, for whatever reason, don't know what else exist. And I have a fundamental belief that if you get all of these people to genuinely do genuinely do what they're passionate about and what they're exceptional and one of one in in an industry or solving a problem that a specific company is working towards. Yeah. That's how you change the world. Just get everyone to work on the thing that they were meant to be doing. [00:12:27] S0: It's... Yes. And it's not even that company which needs to change the world. It's a fact that a lot of people who think that way go work there together, and they build their own relationships, and they meet their own And future it's kind of it's an extension of the idea that you are the average of the five people you spend the time with. So if you want to you desperately want to help, you know, re industrialize America or, you know, uncover new sources of essential minerals or, you know, whichever one of a thousand missions that people are working on out there, If you self select into a culture of people who are working on that mission Yeah. Then you will find that it's not even just the... There's a line of careers along, you know, roles are short, but you... It's the people you you may have made along the way that you can build the next thing with. And Cosign when you're there with them so that you can keep tabs on them.