Consumer

Investing in Hilbert

Bryan Kim, James da Costa, and Andrew Chen Posted April 15, 2026

Every consumer company runs growth. Very few run it well.

The reason is almost never strategy. It’s plumbing. Behind every growth team sits a tangle of data schemas, event taxonomies, attribution tables, and warehouse logic that must be correct before anyone can run a meaningful experiment, optimize a campaign, or even answer the question “did that even work?” The people who build and maintain this layer – the ones who truly understand how the data connects – are the hardest to hire, the most expensive to retain, and the first bottleneck in every growth organization we’ve ever seen.

We know this because we’ve lived it. Between us, we’ve led and built growth functions at companies like Snap and Uber, and we’ve interviewed hundreds of candidates for growth roles over the years. The pattern is always the same: companies can find creative talent, they can find media buyers, but finding the person who can architect the data foundation underneath – the “plumber” – is excruciatingly difficult. And without that plumber, everything downstream is guesswork.

This is not a new problem, but it is a newly solvable one. We’re entering the era of what Andrej Karpathy calls Software 3.0 – agents that don’t just answer questions but autonomously do the work, maintain their own knowledge bases, and get smarter with every cycle. Applied to growth, that means an AI system that can learn a company’s data schema, structure and label it, and then keep maintaining that foundation as the business evolves – recursively compounding its understanding over time. What used to be a six-month, multi-headcount project can now be deployed in weeks. And the right data foundation doesn’t just save money on headcount. It makes every growth dollar smarter, every experiment more trustworthy, and every analyst more dangerous.

That’s why we’re excited to announce our investment in Hilbert.

Hilbert is building AI growth agents for consumer companies. They start where it matters most – structuring and labeling the data that growth teams need to operate at scale. Once that foundation is in place, Hilbert layers on analytics, operations, and – increasingly – execution, allowing teams to co-create growth strategies on top of clean, reliable data. TLDR: Hilbert lays the plumbing, automates the trading, and continuously brings forth high-value opportunities for teams to act on – bringing best in class growth practices to every company that needs them.

What’s been remarkable to watch is the range of companies pulling Hilbert in. They’re working with some of the biggest retailers in the world and winning against legacy marketing clouds with billion-dollar sales orgs. At the same time, some of the fastest-growing AI-native companies are choosing Hilbert. And once Hilbert maps a customer’s data schema and deploys agents on top of it, they become deeply embedded in how a company runs its growth function – the kind of infrastructure that, once it’s working, nobody wants to replace.

At the heart of all of this are Naz and Ceyda. Naz built Getir’s entire growth function from scratch and scaled it across nine countries – she’s the person who was on call for every metric, in every market, obsessive about the data in a way that made her team the analytical backbone of a multi-billion-dollar business. Ceyda is the operational backbone – the person who injects urgency into everything and makes sure the machine actually runs. Together with co-founders Ozgur and Cenk, they’ve been the growth team, the data team, and the ops team at a company that scaled at breakneck speed. They’ve felt every pain point they’re now solving.

We’ve spent a lot of time with this team, and honestly, they’re the reason we’re writing this post. We’ve seen what separates growth orgs that compound from ones that churn – and Hilbert is encoding that kind of visceral knowledge into a product. We’re thrilled to be along for the ride.

Hilbert is hiring – join them.

About the Contributors
Want More a16z Consumer?

Analysis and news covering the latest trends reshaping B2C and consumer tech.

Learn More
Recommended For You
Infra

new Investing in GitButler

Peter Levine and Matt Bornstein
Bio + Health

new Investing in Stipple Bio

Vineeta Agarwala and Bryan Faust
Enterprise

Investing in Treeline

Joe Schmidt
Fintech

Investing in Glimpse

Joe Schmidt and David Haber
Infra

Investing in Deeptune

Marco Mascorro and Martin Casado

Want More Consumer?

Analysis and news covering the latest trends reshaping B2C and consumer tech.

Sign Up On Substack

Views expressed in “posts” (including podcasts, videos, and social media) are those of the individual a16z personnel quoted therein and are not the views of a16z Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) or its respective affiliates. a16z Capital Management is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration as an investment adviser does not imply any special skill or training. The posts are not directed to any investors or potential investors, and do not constitute an offer to sell — or a solicitation of an offer to buy — any securities, and may not be used or relied upon in evaluating the merits of any investment.

The contents in here — and available on any associated distribution platforms and any public a16z online social media accounts, platforms, and sites (collectively, “content distribution outlets”) — should not be construed as or relied upon in any manner as investment, legal, tax, or other advice. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax, and other related matters concerning any investment. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Any charts provided here or on a16z content distribution outlets are for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, posts may include third-party advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein. All content speaks only as of the date indicated.

Under no circumstances should any posts or other information provided on this website — or on associated content distribution outlets — be construed as an offer soliciting the purchase or sale of any security or interest in any pooled investment vehicle sponsored, discussed, or mentioned by a16z personnel. Nor should it be construed as an offer to provide investment advisory services; an offer to invest in an a16z-managed pooled investment vehicle will be made separately and only by means of the confidential offering documents of the specific pooled investment vehicles — which should be read in their entirety, and only to those who, among other requirements, meet certain qualifications under federal securities laws. Such investors, defined as accredited investors and qualified purchasers, are generally deemed capable of evaluating the merits and risks of prospective investments and financial matters.

There can be no assurances that a16z’s investment objectives will be achieved or investment strategies will be successful. Any investment in a vehicle managed by a16z involves a high degree of risk including the risk that the entire amount invested is lost. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by a16z is available here: https://a16z.com/investments/. Past results of a16z’s investments, pooled investment vehicles, or investment strategies are not necessarily indicative of future results. Excluded from this list are investments (and certain publicly traded cryptocurrencies/ digital assets) for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly. As for its investments in any cryptocurrency or token project, a16z is acting in its own financial interest, not necessarily in the interests of other token holders. a16z has no special role in any of these projects or power over their management. a16z does not undertake to continue to have any involvement in these projects other than as an investor and token holder, and other token holders should not expect that it will or rely on it to have any particular involvement.

With respect to funds managed by a16z that are registered in Japan, a16z will provide to any member of the Japanese public a copy of such documents as are required to be made publicly available pursuant to Article 63 of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act of Japan. Please contact compliance@a16z.com to request such documents.

For other site terms of use, please go here. Additional important information about a16z, including our Form ADV Part 2A Brochure, is available at the SEC’s website: http://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.