Rise of the AI Hacker
People keep asking me if we only back AI startups.
And I tell them “no, we only back AI hackers.”
Our thesis has always been that we back the most brilliant engineers as early as possible.
And honestly we care far less about what you are building and far more about who you are.
So what is an AI Hacker?
My definition of a hacker is an “artist who’s not attached to any specific medium of expression.”
Hackers flow through different mediums, picking up whatever tool they need to express themselves, whether that’s Typescript, Figma, ChatGPTs unofficial API, or that new shading method you read about in the research paper published at Stanford this morning.
It’s all about expression. And a hacker will hack together whatever is necessary to express themself.
An AI Hacker
- Leverages AI to write and understand code
- Reads research papers
- Implements them when needed
This is a departure from the skills required in the last decade to be successful. A year ago, I didn’t care if a hacker I was backing read research papers. Now, it’s the difference between them saying GPT4 doesn’t quite get them there and showing me a magical demo they’ve hacked together that somehow just works.
We look for three things at HF0:
- Grit
- Storytelling ability
- Product sense
Our heuristic for product sense is how quickly can a team ship an end to end consumer-grade product.
The answer is that most engineers can’t.
Even fewer engineers actively read research papers.
That combo is lethal. Now more than ever.
Back in October, we were about to launch HF0 in NYC and took a short trip to SF to host an LP dinner. What we discovered blew our minds. Friends across SF were telling me “copilot now writes roughly half of my code.” When we got back to NY we asked our friends what they thought of Copilot. Most told us “I played around with it a bit and it’s cool.”
We immediately knew we had to be in SF.
Something had shifted.
The AI renaissance had already started in San Francisco.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
A monastery for AI Hackers.
If you are a hacker who reads research papers, implements them, and leverages AI to write code, we are building the place for you:
HF0.
Every Friday in October, we will curate a small group of researchers and AI hackers for dinner. People discuss the latest papers, share demos of what they are building, and hack together.
DM me if you want to be a part of it: twitter.com/davefontenot
Or just apply now here: HF0.com
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
HF0 is the only place in the world where everything in your life is taken care of, so you can just build.
More info here:
