GoKawiilAndreessen Horowitz backs $35M school to train teen founders instead of college
Andreessen Horowitz is funding a San Francisco academy, led by Udemy cofounder Gagan Biyani, that offers high school graduates a tuition-free, one-year program focused on building startups rather than academic coursework. The founding cohort of about 50 students will skip tests and homework, instead working on real projects with mentors from firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta, and receiving roughly $50,000 in computing credit plus a $5,000 travel and research budget. OpenAI's Sam Altman is named as a guest lecturer or instructor, and other tech figures, including Fidji Simo, are contributing funding.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The initiative reflects a growing Silicon Valley bet, following earlier efforts like Y Combinator and Peter Thiel's Fellowship, that hands-on startup building can rival or replace a traditional college degree for aspiring entrepreneurs. Backing from major AI labs suggests these companies see value in cultivating talent pipelines outside conventional education systems. Whether the model can scale beyond a small, well-funded founding class remains untested.
- Andreessen Horowitz is investing $35 million in a no-tuition, no-grades startup school for high school graduates.
- The founding class of about 50 students gets $50,000 in compute credits and a $5,000 travel/research budget.
- Sam Altman and other AI industry figures are involved as instructors, partners, or funders.
Source: news.slashdot.org — Posted, 2026-09-23
Published there as: “Andreessen Horowitz Launches AI/Company-Building School As a College Alternative”
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