Aaron Levie
Co-founder and CEO of Box, the cloud content management company, who talks about enterprise AI adoption, AI agents in enterprise software and how work changes a...
“If you build it, they will not come. So if you think that because you built this amazing agent, that now you've solved your problem, like that is like totally, you're going to fail. … I think we might have a little bit of an over-orientation toward the, hey, I made this really viral video and everybody saw it and I got all the likes. And that's not distribution. That's like a cool one-time marketing stunt.”
a16z Podcast · Startups & Venture · October 2026
Asked whether AI changes how startups get distribution, Levie says he doesn't think it does much. In his view founders still have to own an audience and grind out go-to-market, or they'll be drowned out by thousands of other startups.
Transcript
…on out, it's an enterprise kind of industry, with, again, plenty of opportunity for starting consumer companies, to be clear, but it's not because we needed the PhD thing. It's because we needed new packaging in a consumer app that sort of brought this experience together in a better or new way.
…But I'm curious how you think that might evolve. Is it because like, you know, we're just waiting for things to platform and then we'll have distribution insights in that regard? Or do you think that actually it's a whole new ballgame? We're thinking about it like radio and television right now.
…by AI startups. If you build it, they will not come. So if you think that because you built this amazing agent, that now you've solved your problem, like that is like totally, you're going to fail. Like, like you, you are going to be drowned out by 10,000 other startups and priorities that companies deal with all day long. So if you do not think about distribution, then it just won't work. And I think we might have a little bit of an over-orientation toward the, hey, I made this really viral video and everybody saw it and I got all the likes. And that's not distribution. That's like a cool one-time marketing stunt. Like distribution is just the grinding of like, you know, the way I kind of think about it, and I think AI affords this quite effectively, you have to own an audience. There has to be a universe of people that are just so passionate about the thing that you're building. You need to figure out how to just continue to keep access to that relationship. So you better own your community via LinkedIn…
I look forward to every founder basically requiring every employee to have worked in that industry as a global blah person and then being like, oh, I worked in that industry for five, three, four months. Just like when people say, like, you know, you have to have worked in customer service to know…
Exactly.
All right. Aaron, thanks so much for doing this. That's a great one to end on. So we really appreciate you for joining us. Thanks, guys. Thanks for listening to this episode of the A16Z podcast. If you like this episode, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, leave us a rating or review, and share it…
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