a16z(@a16z):Gagan Biyani on why the best way to learn people skills is to build something you can't do alone, and how HAA is designed around it: "One of the most important things we want is to develop people skills. And one of the core tenets of developing a skill like that is osmosis. You need to immerse the student in the social environment in which the humans are." "I think it's a challenge if you go off to college, you only interact with people your same year. You finally maybe have a friend who's one or two years above you or below you." "We're gonna try and cohabitate you, especially in the office, with other companies and individuals and projects and co-ops and internships that are with the, quote unquote, 'adult world.'" "Let's say you're trying to build a new type of robot dog, and the only way to do it is to get a specific type of chip, and you don't know how to write a cold email. You're gonna have to learn. And you're gonna have all these people around you who are experts at this." "The combination of the osmosis of Silicon Valley, a peer network that's supportive, and the project-based curriculum will dramatically accelerate people skill development." "Over something like, let me sit in a lecture talking about negotiations. That's not how you develop people skills. You develop people skills because you're doing something you really care about and you need to get everyone on board." @gaganbiyani

2026.09.22 18:30

Gagan Biyani on why the best way to learn people skills is to build something you can't do alone, and how HAA is designed around it: "One of the most important things we want is to develop people skills. And one of the core tenets of developing a skill like that is osmosis. You need to immerse the student in the social environment in which the humans are." "I think it's a challenge if you go off to college, you only interact with people your same year. You finally maybe have a friend who's one or two years above you or below you." "We're gonna try and cohabitate you, especially in the office, with other companies and individuals and projects and co-ops and internships that are with the, quote unquote, 'adult world.'" "Let's say you're trying to build a new type of robot dog, and the only way to do it is to get a specific type of chip, and you don't know how to write a cold email. You're gonna have to learn. And you're gonna have all these people around you who are experts at this." "The combination of the osmosis of Silicon Valley, a peer network that's supportive, and the project-based curriculum will dramatically accelerate people skill development." "Over something like, let me sit in a lecture talking about negotiations. That's not how you develop people skills. You develop people skills because you're doing something you really care about and you need to get everyone on board." @gaganbiyani

a16z@a16z

2026.09.22 16:55

Gagan Biyani with Erik Torenberg and Ben Horowitz on HAA: The Horowitz Andreessen Academy HAA is a private, full-time, in-person school in San Francisco for young people coming out of high school. Its mission is to nurture the best young people in the world, and equip them with the tools to shape it. The Industrial Revolution rewrote how we train young people. It's time for a new model for the AI era. HAA is project-based – less lecture time, more time with tools and AI, structured social life, co-ops/internships, with students embedded alongside working adults. Founding Partners include Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit, and Stripe. It's the best time in history to be 18. The vision is grads with careers they love or their own companies founded, and hopefully other schools copying the model down the road. 0:55 Why a16z is backing a school 4:40 Why other college alternatives failed 6:55 AI is this era's Industrial Revolution 9:35 The model: live in SF, intern at top startups 12:10 Ben: the best time in history to be 18 15:25 No big idea at 18? Join someone who has one 17:40 People skills come from reps, not lectures 23:15 Why it has to be San Francisco 26:45 Why it's a separate, for-profit company 31:00 Every curiosity becomes a project 33:30 Main character or NPC? 35:15 You can't learn to be a CEO from a book 37:30 Picking a problem, and failing the right way 40:30 What success looks like in five years YouTube: @gaganbiyani @bhorowitz @eriktorenberg