Join a16z for our inaugural American Dynamism Summit, which will bring together the innovators and leaders driving meaningful progress in American society. Throughout this one-day event, we’ll discuss and champion the ideas that will advance our future — from national security and aerospace to public safety and housing.
Programming will be followed by an evening reception at the newly renovated National Air and Space Museum.
RSVP as space is limited. Confirmation details will be sent upon registration.
Summit
Waldorf Astoria Washington D.C.
12:00–6:30pm ET
Reception
National Air and Space Museum
7:00–10:00pm ET
Adena Hefets is the co-founder & CEO of Divvy Homes, a proptech company on a mission to make homeownership accessible to everyone. Today, Adena is one of the few female founders to reach double unicorn status and to be valued at approximately $2 billion. Prior to founding Divvy, Adena joined Square in 2013 and was responsible for building out Square Capital, a merchant cash advance platform with billions in loans outstanding. Prior to joining Square, she was part of the large-cap buyout team at TPG, a private equity firm, where she helped purchase companies in the real estate sector. She started her career as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch.
At Shield AI, Brandon has focused on operationalizing AI for Maneuver capabilities for the warfighter and engaging the warfighter on product requirements to ensure that significant, game-changing value is delivered. Prior to Shield AI, Brandon served as a Navy SEAL with two deployments to Afghanistan and one to the Pacific Theater. His experiences in combat and his deep understanding of the spectrum of military operations help drive the CONOP-based design thinking and product development at Shield AI. Previously, he was the assistant chief engineer aboard the USS Pearl Harbor (LSD-52) and deployed to the Persian Gulf. He earned his Mechanical Engineering degree from the U.S. Naval Academy and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Brian Schimpf is Co-Founder and CEO of Anduril Industries where he drives the strategic direction and product roadmap of the defense technology company. Prior to Anduril, Brian was Director of Engineering at Palantir Technologies, where he led a large engineering organization developing and deploying data integration and analysis products. He served numerous domestic and international government organizations across the intelligence, defense and law enforcement sectors.
Previously, Brian was the Founder and Lead of Cornell University’s autonomous vehicle research program where his teams competed in DARPA’s Grand Challenge and Urban Challenge. Brian graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering.
Chris Best is co-founder and CEO of Substack, a subscription publishing platform for independent writers and podcasters. Founded in 2017, Substack creates a better future for writing by letting writers and podcasters own their work and their relationship with their audience.
Before Substack, Chris was the co-founder and CTO of the mobile messenger app, Kik. From 2009–2017, Chris helped scale Kik and build a product used by over 300 million users. Chris graduated from the University of Waterloo and is based in San Francisco.
Christian Brose is the Chief Strategy Officer at Anduril Industries, a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and author of The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High Tech Warfare.
Brose joined Anduril in 2018 from Capitol Hill where he served as staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee for three years, managing the Committee’s staff and overseeing all programs, policies, and resources of the Department of Defense. From 2009-2014, he served as senior policy advisor to Senator John McCain (R-AZ), supporting his work on the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Prior to that, he served as policy adviser and chief speechwriter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from 2005-2008, working as a member of the Secretary’s Policy Planning Staff and supporting the Secretary on regular foreign travel. He began his career in public service as a speechwriter for Secretary of State Colin Powell. He studied political science at Kenyon College and international economics at the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group and a former editor of Foreign Policy Magazine.
David Ulevitch is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz where he focuses on enterprise and SaaS investments. He was previously the founder and CEO of OpenDNS, a cloud-delivered security service that was acquired by Cisco in 2015. His vision and leadership were responsible for creating a cloud-delivered security service that today protects over 85 million people worldwide across more than 10,000 enterprise customers. While at Cisco, David was a senior vice president and general manager of Cisco Security — a $2.4 billion annual revenue business — where he oversaw the company’s global security strategy, portfolio, and architecture.
Prior to OpenDNS, David founded EveryDNS, an authoritative DNS service, and grew it into the world’s largest free DNS service, which he sold to Dyn (now Oracle) in 2010.
David holds a BA in Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis, which turned out to be way more useful than he expected.
David serves on the board of AnyRoad, Charthop, Orderful, Skydio, Superhuman, Tandem, and WorkBoard.
Katherine Boyle is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz where she invests in companies that promote American dynamism, including national security, aerospace and defense, public safety, housing, education, and industrials.
She was previously a partner at General Catalyst. Prior to GC, she was a general assignment reporter at The Washington Post. Katherine holds a BA in Government from Georgetown University, an MBA from Stanford, and a Masters of Public Advocacy from the National University of Ireland, Galway.
Marc Andreessen is a cofounder and general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He is an innovator and creator, one of the few to pioneer a software category used by more than a billion people and one of the few to establish multiple billion-dollar companies.
Marc co-created the highly influential Mosaic internet browser and co-founded Netscape, which later sold to AOL for $4.2 billion. He also co-founded Loudcloud, which as Opsware, sold to Hewlett-Packard for $1.6 billion. He later served on the board of Hewlett-Packard from 2008 to 2018.
Marc holds a BS in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Marc serves on the board of the following Andreessen Horowitz portfolio companies: Applied Intuition, Carta, Dialpad, Honor, OpenGov, and Samsara. He is also on the board of Facebook.
Congressman Mike Gallagher represents Wisconsin’s 8th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he is the Ranking Member of the Military Personnel Subcommittee on the House Armed Services Committee, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Chairman of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, and a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Prior to taking office, Mike served for seven years on active duty in the United States Marine Corps, including two deployments to Iraq. Mike earned a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a master’s degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in Strategic Intelligence from National Intelligence University, and a PhD in International Relations from Georgetown.
Palmer Luckey is an American inventor, innovator, and entrepreneur. He is the Founder of defense technology company Anduril Industries, designer of the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality head-mounted display, and the Founder of Oculus VR, which was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $2.3b.
Palmer founded Anduril Industries in 2017 to radically transform the defense capabilities of the United States and its allies by fusing artificial intelligence with the latest hardware advancements. At Anduril, Palmer integrates a consumer technology business model with mission-driven objectives, enabling rapid product development and deployment, setting the company apart from other players in the defense industry.
His deep interest in defense technology was driven by his time at the USC ICT MxR lab, where he built hardware used to research immersive PTSD treatment for US veterans. He continued to support various military applications of VR during his time at Oculus, informing his belief that radical modernization of US military technology is a prerequisite for preserving our way of life.
Palmer began attending Golden West College and Long Beach City College at the age of 14, and studied at California State University, Long Beach before dropping out to build Oculus VR.
Waldorf Astoria Washington D.C.
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20004