
Co-Founder and General Partner at @companyonvc. Investor/Board Member at @micro1_ai, @poshvip_,@flexsuperapp, @knowify
Boston Area
Joined March 2009
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Tom Lazay retweeted
Pro-rata is always earned, never a right. No matter what a piece of paper says (or doesn't say).
To be clear, pro-rata is essential for us early-stage investors. It's how we double and triple down on our breakout winners and concentrate capital to generate massive returns.
We've been fortunate to do it several times at Companyon in our best companies.
But it's on us as GPs to earn pro-rata every round. Past support just doesn't guarantee us a spot today, whether you agree with it or not.
Founders talk. Sometimes publicly. Your reputation and continued value are the real pro-rata.
Tom Lazay retweeted
about 3 years ago, micro1 lost 60% of its revenue overnight and almost went bankrupt.
today, i'm proud to share we've surpassed $1B annual run rate while remaining historically profitable.
it’s been a special journey. we’re grateful for every struggle, moment, and person who has been part of it.
we've taken a very untraditional path to get here. our core team is only ~180 people, spanning 14+ countries, and fully remote.
many of our decisions sacrifice hundreds of millions of revenue and slow us down short term. but we believe they compound into advantages that are impossible to replicate long term.
the long term is now.
these are the 8 principles that made micro1 a leader in the data industry and will soon make us number one:
1.) human 1st AI: treat the tens of thousands of experts helping train models with absolute best-in-class care. our goal is to make AI training one of the largest, highest paying, and most enjoyable job sectors in the world.
2.) U.S. first: we refuse to work with adversarial nations, or export data that improves models against the interests of Americans.
3.) long-term research over short-term ARR: invest in deep research, products, and infrastructure for years from now, not just the next customer pipeline.
4.) proper incentives for intensely hard work: no arbitrary requirements like 996. inspire people to work extremely hard with outlier incentive structures instead of forcing weekend work. we’ve maintained close to 100% core team retention as a result.
5.) stay lean and global: we’ve reached $1B run rate with ~180 people, and intend to slow team growth significantly from here. exceptional talent is found around the world, and pedigree is the wrong thing to over-index on.
6.) execution alignment: company to retain a streamlined board so we can optimize for the next several decades, remain light-weight and dynamic, and take bold & calculated risks.
7.) abundant intelligence improvement: invest in building data generation models to make high-quality datasets and RL environments dramatically less expensive and more abundant.
8.) scale data on realism and horizon: realism brings the complexity of the real world into training models, while horizon extends how long models can work and how much complexity they can handle. both have enormous room to scale, and we’re pushing the limits of both.
additionally: after surpassing $500M run rate this summer, we priced our Series B at a $4B valuation, alongside a ~$25M tender to give our early employees liquidity as we build for the long term. the round was led by Dream Ventures, a longtime supporter and one of our earliest investors, alongside Microsoft, Javelin, Flybridge, G Squared, Up Partners, and LG.
we’re also grateful to be backed by incredible industry leaders, including Guodong Zhang (co-founder of xAI), Andy Fang (CTO of DoorDash), Igor Babuschkin (co-founder of xAI), Behnam Neyshabur (founder of Mirendil), Jerry Tworek (ex-VP of Research at OpenAI), and many more.
data is on its way to becoming the largest industry humanity has ever seen, and we're certain this is just the beginning.
best,
Ali
Tom Lazay retweeted
Founders see the money being raised right now and assume fundraising is easy.
Truth is, that only applies to a small handful of AI startups that are redefining growth.
For everyone else, the bar is higher. More VC money is chasing a smaller set of winners, which means fewer funding options for most startups and lower graduate rates to the next round.
Don't confuse the hype with the broader market.
Tom Lazay retweeted
Another day, another 20-something making a fortune from selling data to AI labs. This time @micro1_ai and @aliansarinik have raised $100m+ at a $4b valuation, after going from $7m ARR -> $500m ARR in 1.5 years. forbes.com/sites/annatong/20…
Tom Lazay retweeted
Excited to share that micro1 has been selected to support the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission.
Genesis is a Manhattan Project-scale national effort to accelerate scientific discovery with AI and build the energy foundation needed to power America’s AI leadership.
micro1 will support the mission by developing the data and evaluations that enable frontier AI to tackle some of the country’s most difficult scientific and engineering challenges.
We’re proud to play a role in an effort this important to the future of American science, energy, and AI. More on our work with the DOE linked in the comments. 🇺🇸
Tom Lazay retweeted
Flex is amongst the fastest growing FinTechs in the world.
We saw an acceleration of growth in July on the heels of our Flex Global launch at 9-figure revenue run rate scale, especially with our global banking product. Our fundamental metrics have never been better with 98%+ logo retention and 140%+ NDR. And we have four major new products slated for launch this fall with even more planned for 2027.
We are hiring across engineering, applied AI, product, security, risk, fraud, compliance, and more to build the "full financial home" for ambitious people in a 170 countries. DM us if you'd like to chat.
Tom Lazay retweeted
Grateful to our VC partners at Flex.
Like every founder, the journey for Flex wasn’t easy. 100s of rejections in the early days. Some with warmth. Others not so.
But it only takes a few to believe.
Keep building.
Tom Lazay retweeted
It’s time to expose a huge scam in AI startups: Contracted ARR
The reason many AI startups are crushing revenue records is because they are using a dishonest metric
The biggest funds in the world are supporting this and misleading journalists for PR coverage.
The setup: Company signs 3-year enterprise deals. Year 1 is discounted (say $1M), Year 2 steps up ($2M), Year 3 is full price ($3M).
They report $3M as “ARR” — even though they’re only collecting $1M right now.
The worst part: The customer has an opt-out option at 12 months! It’s not actually a 3 year contract.
In the chart below, by Q5 the company is trumpeting ~$100M “ARR” to press, while actual cash-generating, in-effect ARR is ~$35M. That’s ~3x inflation.
On top of this, enterprise AI companies are bundling full-time “forward deployed engineers” into deals massively reducing margins, sometimes producing Year 1 negative margins.
At some point customers are going to start triggering their opt-out clauses or aggressively negotiating down Year 3 pricing.
And a wave of enterprise AI companies may collapse.
I asked one of our top portfolio CEOs how he built such an elite senior team (40x revenue growth, Series C with a Tier 1 investor). I expected some nuanced recruiting playbook.
His answer: "Simple- I never make an important hire before interviewing at least 10 candidates." 🧵
Just updating the @companyonvc screening process to catch up with my fellow CCs. Founders, enter your website URL here.
deathbyclawd.com
Tom Lazay retweeted
Proud to see Flex listed by Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in 2026 list with great company like Nvidia, Anthropic, Robinhood, Bilt, Plaid, and Circle. Day 1.
@FlexSuperApp
Tom Lazay retweeted
I'm excited to announce Posh’s $37M Series B, led by @FirstMarkCap.
6 years ago, people told us a better events platform was a solved problem. 8m users and $350M in GMV later, we're just getting started.
For more on our vision and what's next: posh.vip/vision










