Quote · The a16z Show
Ben Horowitz and Travis Kalanick on Building Again
Where this was said
Industrial AI and the Next Industrial Revolution
At 5:15 · chapter starts 4:55
With the platform of Atoms' launch event, Kalanick lays out the philosophical thesis behind his new company [1] — Travis Kalanick "Automated food production cheaper than grocery shopping. Mining companies that own nothing but real estate. Kalanick believes these are nea…" 04:29 . The argument is sweeping: just as the second industrial revolution transformed physical production in the 19th century, industrial AI will automate the physical world today. He walks through the logic for food (preparation and delivery will undercut grocery costs), mining (fully automated operations reduce companies to real estate holders), and manufacturing — each representing markets worth hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars. The comparison to digital AI and enterprise software is deliberate: he is signaling that the Atoms bet is bigger, not just different. He closes with a note of sober ambition — all of this is possible if they execute.
Before Uber, Kalanick spent four years without taking a salary at his previous company, surviving on welfare and wearing socks that read 'blood, sweat, and ramen.'
At Uber, Kalanick was so conditioned by near-bankruptcy that he operated in survival mode even with 20,000 employees — a mindset Ben Horowitz says was dangerous at that scale. At Atoms, he's still intense, but runs clean: no slow-motion replay needed to know he did the right thing.
