American Dynamism
A brief-ish explainer of Andreessen Horowitz's American Dynamism.
By: Luke Fretwell
Posted: December 3, 2024
Estimated read time: 7 minutes
What is American Dynamism? 🤔
American Dynamism is an ideal and investment practice initiated by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (aka a16z).
It favors VC-backed innovation over government bureaucracy, and champions the funding and growth of technology startups supporting U.S. national interest.
- Launched in January 2020.
What they believe:
- “The American Dynamism practice invests in founders and companies that support the national interest, including but not limited to aerospace, defense, education, housing, transportation, public safety, supply chain, industrials, and manufacturing.”
- “Mission-driven and civic-minded founders often build companies that transcend verticals and business models in their quest to solve important national problems.
- These companies view the government as a customer, competitor, or key stakeholder—and the success of these companies supports the flourishing of all Americans.”
And:
- “American dynamism is for builders. It is the belief that the values upon which the country was founded are real and worth defending.”
- “Dynamism is also a feeling: the feeling of growth, movement, momentum, and opportunity that makes America the country people want to be from, to immigrate to, and to build a life, career or company in.”
Why it matters 🚨
- It is unabashedly pro-America ingenuity and innovation.
- The political climate is shifting to urgency and government efficiency.
- American Dynamism champions are well-connected to the Trump administration.
- Capital is increasingly flowing into early stage companies focused on this area.
- Government – particularly intelligence and defense – is starting to buy into (literally + figuratively) the software (vs. services) approach to civic institution renewal.
How it started 🍎
Technology innovation and procurement hacking started with the leadership of Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who created the Defense Innovation Unit in 2015.
- First located in Silicon Valley.
- “Accelerating Commercial Technology for National Security.”
- “Helps minimize up-front costs for commercial tech companies interested in working with DoD”
- Related: “Unit X: How the Pentagon and Silicon Valley Are Transforming the Future of War”
Champions 🏆
Key American Dynamism figures:
- Marc Andreesen (a16z founder)
- Katherine Boyle, David Ulevitch (a16z general partners and American Dynamism practice founders)
Beyond tech 🪁
More than just technology, American Dynamism invests in:
- Agriculture
- Aviation & Space
- Construction & Housing
- Defense & Public Safety
- Education & Community
- Energy & Materials
- GovTech
- Labor
- Manufacturing & Robotics
- Transportation & Logistics
Build it 🏗️
In April 2020, during the throes of COVID, Andreessen wrote that it’s time to build. This is foundational reading in understanding the spirit behind American Dynamism.
The problem is not:
- Money
- Capitalism
- Technical competence
The problem is:
- Desire
- Inertia
- Regulatory capture
- Will
Andreesen:
- “Part of the problem is clearly foresight, a failure of imagination.”
- “But the other part of the problem is what we didn’t do in advance, and what we’re failing to do now.”
- “And that is a failure of action, and specifically our widespread inability to build.”
- “Building is how we reboot the American dream.”
The sunny side 🍳
In October 2023, Andreesen wrote “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto,” another foundational piece to American Dynamism thinking:
- “The only perpetual source of growth is technology.”
- “We believe America and her allies should be strong and not weak.”
- “We believe national strength of liberal democracies flows from economic strength (financial power), cultural strength (soft power), and military strength (hard power).”
- “Economic, cultural, and military strength flow from technological strength.”
- “A technologically strong America is a force for good in a dangerous world.”
- “Technologically strong liberal democracies safeguard liberty and peace.”
- “Technologically weak liberal democracies lose to their autocratic rivals, making everyone worse off.”
- “Our enemy is bureaucracy, vetocracy, gerontocracy, blind deference to tradition.”
How it’s going 🌱
In May 2023, a16z announced it would invest $500 million in early stage companies building for American Dynamism.
- “We’re eager to make bold bets on bold entrepreneurs at all stages of the building process.”
- “We support and are in search of companies doing anything that we believe will help our country and our people move forward.”
Inside out 🏛️
Founders of American Dynamism companies aren’t just technologists with solutions looking for problems. They’re “servants-turned-entrepreneurs” who’ve worked inside the bureaucracy and are now building from outside.
These include:
- Glenn Case, Thermo-fluid analysis engineer, NASA
- Joseph Chen, Paratrooper, U.S. Army National Guard
- Martin Greenwald, Chairman, Federal Advisory Committee for Fusion Energy Sciences, U.S. Department of Energy
- Tim Ellis, National Space Council Users Advisory Group, The White House
- Jordan Noone, U.S. Speaker’s Program, U.S. Department of State
- Michael Guirguis, Employment policy, National Economic Council
- Brittany Stich, White House fellow
- Sean Hunt, Fuel cell engineer, U.S. Navy
- Grant Verstandig, Research fellow, National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute
- Mike Slagh, Bomb disposal officer, U.S. Navy
- Nini Moorhead, Counterterrorism Analyst, United States Department of Defense, Office of the Director of National Intelligence
- Brandon Tseng, SEAL, U.S. Navy
Builders 👷♂️
a16z’s American Dynamism 50 spotlights companies that “embody the spirit of American Dynamism.”
A selection:
Apolitical (?) 🟣
Andreesen calls out both sides of the political fence to step up.
The right:
- “Must fight hard against crony capitalism, regulatory capture, ossified oligopolies, risk-inducing offshoring, and investor-friendly buybacks in lieu of customer-friendly (and, over a longer period of time, even more investor-friendly) innovation.”
- “It’s time for full-throated, unapologetic, uncompromised political support from the right for aggressive investment in new products, in new industries, in new factories, in new science, in big leaps forward.”
The left:
- “Demonstrate that the public sector can build better hospitals, better schools, better transportation, better cities, better housing.”
- “Stop trying to protect the old, the entrenched, the irrelevant; commit the public sector fully to the future.”
What she says 💬
Boyle, its champion-in-chief, wrote the American Dynamism manifesto.
Key quotes:
- “The technology sector is the only sector of the American economy that has maintained its vibrancy, dynamism, and growth through innovation over the last 25 years.”
- “The only way to reverse the course of stagnation and kickstart nationwide renewal post-Covid is through technologists building companies that support the national interest.”
- “Whether it was Uber and Lyft supplementing much of public transport in major cities or Palantir assisting in the important work of the U.S. intelligence community, it is becoming clear that government cannot meet the needs of its citizens without the tech sector’s aid.”
- “The private sector is taking on important missions of government because it has the specialized talent and means to do so.”
- “Dynamism in America is not being spurred by policy in Washington — it’s being driven by a growing group of technologists that are solving problems of immense national importance.”
- “As technology becomes less of a ‘sector’ and more of a means of acceleration that touches every industry and aspect of society, we’ll see more solutions for American problems coming from engineers, technologists, and startup founders.”
- “Washington and Silicon Valley are going to have to become friends.”
Parting thoughts 💭
- While defense and intelligence are ripe for disruption and support, so is local government.
- Legacy, big govtech firms still have a stronghold on municipal innovation potential.
- Given the dwindling resources at the local level, true software-focused alternatives are poised to leapfrog these legacy vendors.
Go deeper ⛏️
