The a16z Show · Thursday, July 30, 2026
Frederick Vankin highlighted how advancements in AI models have enabled software to move beyond just storing data to actively performing labor. Lassie's strategy leveraged this by first building the data context and tools, then upgrading the intelligence layer as AI capabilities improved, making the product smarter over time.
“But if you think about what it takes to automate any job, you're really looking at getting context on the work... and then you need tools to do the work.”
“But then as the models got really good, we had this kind of future tailwind because we had all this context already built, all the tools were already built, and we could kind of as the models got better, just replace our intelligence.”
“The end goal here is that AI isn't just changing how software is built. It's changing what software does.”