Daily REX Market Recap Index Focus: S&P 500, -0.07% Equity Focus: Roblox, $RBLX, +9.64% Recap: US stocks were mixed as rising Treasury yields and oil-driven inflation fears pressured markets, while investors awaited Nvidia earnings and key retail reports for consumer spending insight. Top gainers and losers*

Product-Market Fit Happens at Different Speeds Everyone talks about PMF like it’s the finish line, but it’s really just the point where the market gives you permission to keep going. A lot of founders assume fast PMF automatically means a better company, but history doesn’t really support that. Roblox took almost 10 years to become Roblox. Airbnb looked fragile and uncertain for years before it became inevitable in hindsight. Most startups don’t actually die because the market is too small or the idea is terrible. A lot of them die because the founders lose conviction before the insight has enough time to compound. When you’re in the middle of it, it’s very hard to tell the difference between “this isn’t working” and “this just needs more time.” Another thing people miss is that PMF looks completely different depending on the market. Consumer #AI# companies often show PMF through explosive growth, virality, and rapid adoption. Security companies can look almost slow from the outside, but their PMF shows up through renewals, large contracts, and deep customer dependence. That’s why comparing PMF timelines across industries is dangerous. Wiz got to $100M ARR with only a few hundred customers because each customer had enormous pain and very high willingness to pay. That signal is just as real as a product growing through millions of users. In the end, the speed of #PMF# mostly depends on two things: how quickly customers understand the value, and how long their organization takes to actually act on it. A consumer can make a decision in 30 seconds. A large enterprise might take 9 months, multiple approvals, and procurement reviews. Sometimes slow traction means weak demand. But sometimes you’re just building in a market where trust and buying behavior naturally move slower. The hardest part is that you usually can’t tell which situation you’re in until years later. #ai# #security# #PMF# #investment#

Alex Immerman @aleximm Since we launched our first @a16z Growth fund seven years ago, we’ve backed companies that are just at the point of finding product-market fit all the way through to investing at IPO, and we recently announced our latest $6.75B Growth fund to continue to do so. We now manage over over $22B across five Growth funds and believe the opportunity to partner with growth-stage companies has never been greater. Through it all, Alex Immerman has been instrumental in what we’ve built, which is why I’m thrilled to announce that Alex is being promoted to General Partner on our Growth investing team at a16z. Alex has been an incredible force since joining the team seven years ago, partnering with founders across consumer internet, enterprise, fintech, crypto, and AI-powered software companies — supporting them from early traction through breakout scale. In the last six months alone, Alex led our new investments in Kalshi, EliseAI, and Revolut, and has partnered with many founders in his time here, including those from Waymo, Stripe, ElevenLabs, Hebbia, Roblox, Anduril, Flock Safety, and many more. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Alex for over a decade, dating back to our time at General Atlantic. Those who know Alex know he’s a hustler, in the best way, with great instincts. He has an endless motor, isn’t afraid to speak his mind, and is always willing to help. I’ve also enjoyed seeing Alex become a culture carrier on the Growth team and across the firm. In his work, Alex has brought deep strategic insight and rigor to every part of the investment process. He’s built strong founder relationships grounded in trust and long-term support, and helped shape our thinking about how great companies win — whether that’s moving beyond surface metrics to durable moats or evaluating what truly drives retention in new software paradigms. As a General Partner on Growth, Alex will continue leading investments and working closely with founders tackling some of the biggest opportunities in tech today, with an emphasis on category-defining companies at the intersection of AI, consumer, B2B, crypto, and the physical world. Please join me in congratulating “AI.” I’m proud to call him a partner and am excited for what’s ahead.