Key Takeaways
- • Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is backing Conway Research and its flagship product Underdog, an on-device AI system designed to operate with user-controlled data rather than cloud infrastructure.
- • Founder Sigil Wen, who received the Thiel Fellowship in 2025, has built Conway Research around the principle of personal intelligence — AI that prioritizes user privacy by running locally on personal devices.
- • Wen's founding conviction stems from a personal incident: years ago while living alongside AI researcher Andrej Karpathy, a bug in a popular email app exposed his private emails to other users, motivating him to build AI systems users can trust with their data.
- • Wen's network includes connections forged at an early AI hacker house with researchers and engineers who contributed to DALL·E, Whisper, GPT-3, and Stable Diffusion; he was also an early Claude tester and helped Naval Ravikant launch Airchat before becoming Spearhead's youngest member.
- • The investment reflects a16z's thesis that trust, local context richness, and utility create a reinforcing cycle — enabling users to grant richer permissions to AI systems they control and understand.
Summary
Andreessen Horowitz has invested in Conway Research, a startup founded by Sigil Wen focused on bringing personal intelligence to user-owned devices through its product Underdog. The company's core mission centers on deploying AI that operates on local hardware with data under user control, rather than relying on cloud-based infrastructure that centralizes personal information.
Wen's path to founding Conway Research reflects both his resourcefulness and deep immersion in AI's early development. At 17, he moved to San Francisco with minimal network connections and spent time living at a WeWork. He subsequently lived in a hacker house alongside prominent AI researchers and engineers, including Andrej Karpathy and others who contributed to foundational models like DALL·E, Whisper, GPT-3, and Stable Diffusion. Wen was among the earliest testers of Anthropic's Claude and witnessed the initial versions of technology that would power Midjourney. His professional trajectory includes helping Naval Ravikant build and launch Airchat and recruiting most of its engineering team. In 2025, Wen received the Thiel Fellowship, recognizing his potential as a builder.
The personal motivation behind Underdog emerged from a specific incident during Wen's time at the hacker house with Karpathy. A bug in a widely used email application exposed his private, privileged emails to other users — an experience that crystallized his conviction that AI systems capable of accessing sensitive personal data should operate under user control rather than in centralized cloud environments. A16z's investment thesis around the product emphasizes that trust increases user permission-granting, richer local context improves utility, and better utility reinforces trust, creating a virtuous cycle for adoption and capability.
Wen's track record demonstrates an approach centered on relationship-building and helping others succeed. He treats relationships as decades-long commitments, whether recruiting engineers, assisting founders with hiring and fundraising, or learning from AI researchers at the frontier. A16z partnered with Wen after Naval Ravikant introduced him at a company event in 2021, and the firm's backing reflects confidence in both his vision for on-device personal AI and his ability to execute through the relationships and learning he has accumulated.
Wen's path to founding Conway Research reflects both his resourcefulness and deep immersion in AI's early development. At 17, he moved to San Francisco with minimal network connections and spent time living at a WeWork. He subsequently lived in a hacker house alongside prominent AI researchers and engineers, including Andrej Karpathy and others who contributed to foundational models like DALL·E, Whisper, GPT-3, and Stable Diffusion. Wen was among the earliest testers of Anthropic's Claude and witnessed the initial versions of technology that would power Midjourney. His professional trajectory includes helping Naval Ravikant build and launch Airchat and recruiting most of its engineering team. In 2025, Wen received the Thiel Fellowship, recognizing his potential as a builder.
The personal motivation behind Underdog emerged from a specific incident during Wen's time at the hacker house with Karpathy. A bug in a widely used email application exposed his private, privileged emails to other users — an experience that crystallized his conviction that AI systems capable of accessing sensitive personal data should operate under user control rather than in centralized cloud environments. A16z's investment thesis around the product emphasizes that trust increases user permission-granting, richer local context improves utility, and better utility reinforces trust, creating a virtuous cycle for adoption and capability.
Wen's track record demonstrates an approach centered on relationship-building and helping others succeed. He treats relationships as decades-long commitments, whether recruiting engineers, assisting founders with hiring and fundraising, or learning from AI researchers at the frontier. A16z partnered with Wen after Naval Ravikant introduced him at a company event in 2021, and the firm's backing reflects confidence in both his vision for on-device personal AI and his ability to execute through the relationships and learning he has accumulated.
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