Andreessen Horowitz has discovered that foreign founders may have a hidden advantage in the AI boom: they can serve customers in their home countries while American startups remain focused on the U.S. market. According to Gabriel Vasquez, a partner at a16z focusing on AI applications and global investment strategy, 44% of the firm's investments in its Apps Fund One and Two have an international founder. This shift reflects a fundamental change in how enterprise software is being adopted worldwide, driven by the urgency of AI adoption.

Why Are International Founders Suddenly Winning in AI?

The advantage stems from a dramatic shift in how companies outside the United States are buying software. Vasquez explained that historically, "the buyers from countries outside the U.S. were not moving rapidly, and their willingness to pay was very low." But this pattern has reversed entirely in the last three to five years. Legacy companies worldwide now realize they must purchase third-party AI solutions to remain competitive, even in regions where human labor remains affordable, such as Latin America.

Vasquez

"There's so much appetite at the enterprise level for companies all around the world to consume AI, but American startups don't have the speed yet to go serve the entire market from day zero, so they obviously prioritize U.S. companies," Vasquez noted. This creates a natural opening for local founders who understand their home markets and can split their time between their country and Silicon Valley. The concept of headquarters itself is becoming more fluid, with governments even taking notice; Poland recently took a stake in a16z portfolio company ElevenLabs, a voice AI startup, despite the company maintaining only a subsidiary there rather than its main headquarters.

How Is a16z Supporting This New Wave of International Founders?

• Borderless Founder Network: a16z launched this initiative alongside general partner Angela Strange to support immigrant and international founders, recognizing that great companies can be born anywhere and that foreign entrepreneurs now possess distinct advantages in the AI era.
• Increased Travel and Dealflow: Vasquez revealed that a16z is "spending more than one million air miles" to pursue international dealflow rather than expecting every team to relocate to the United States, with frequent trips to talent hubs like Stockholm.
• Talent Pool Access: International founders tap into talent clusters that exist outside Silicon Valley, which is particularly valuable given that recruiting in the Valley has become "the hardest thing" due to competition from well-funded AI labs like Anthropic and OpenAI.

The shift reflects a broader recognition that European talent, in particular, represents "one of America's biggest startup advantages," according to Dealroom founder Yoram Wijngaarde, as quoted by a16z partners. Many of the top AI scaleups emerging globally are European academic spinouts, prompting venture capitalists to invest heavily in these regions.

"There is now an advantage to having one foot in your home country, and one foot in Silicon Valley," stated Gabriel Vasquez and Angela Strange in a post about the firm's international strategy.

Gabriel Vasquez, Partner at Andreessen Horowitz; Angela Strange, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz

Real-world examples abound. ElevenLabs, founded by Polish entrepreneurs Piotr Dąbkowski and Mateusz Staniszewski, has already secured major customers including InPost and LOT Polish Airlines while maintaining a presence in both Poland and Silicon Valley. These kinds of early wins by international startups would have been nearly impossible just a few years ago, when European corporations typically engaged with startups only through formal open innovation programs and accelerators, rarely opening their main budgets to external vendors.

The AI-driven shift is particularly pronounced in regions where software adoption had previously lagged. "Software never really picked up in the region, because you were competing with cheap labor," Vasquez explained of Latin America. But now that AI agents are "always on" and increasingly accurate, they have become commonplace in customer service and other applications, creating demand that transcends labor cost considerations.

For founders evaluating where to build their next company, this trend suggests a new playbook: develop deep expertise in your home market, build relationships with local enterprises, and use those early wins as proof points while maintaining a presence in Silicon Valley for fundraising and talent recruitment. The days when American startups could assume they would dominate global markets from day one appear to be ending, at least in the AI era.