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PodcastThe a16z ShowOctober 19, 2026

What Happens When Al Agents Can Spend Your Money?

AI's enterprise bottleneck is discovering what to automate, not model intelligence — favoring neutral, data-owning app-layer players over labs.

  • Pivot from tax to assistant: Town abandoned SMB tax automation (~$1M revenue year one) after realizing incumbents could copy AI-driven tax prep faster than a startup could scale, since tax is sold only once a year.
  • Email/calendar as the wedge: Town built a personal AI assistant on email and calendar because no one had automated common knowledge-worker workflows like meeting prep, deeming consumer-grade UX the key to enterprise adoption.

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