a16z Speedrun Companies Scraper

Extract portfolio companies and founder leads from a16z Speedrun — cohort, industries, location, website, LinkedIn, and nested founder profiles — into clean JSON/CSV.

Ideal for investors, SDRs, and researchers who want Speedrun company data without manual browsing or one-off Firecrawl jobs.

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Why Use This Scraper?

• Public JSON API — structured fields, not brittle HTML selectors
• Full catalog in minutes — ~240 companies with offset pagination
• Founder LinkedIns included — name, title, bio, and profile URLs nested per company
• Filters that match the site — cohort, industry, region, and search
• YC-scraper style use case — accelerator portfolio leads for outreach & research

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Overview

This Actor scrapes the a16z Speedrun companies directory. Each dataset row is one company, with founders nested in a founders[] array plus flat helper fields (founderNames, founderLinkedins).

Contact emails: Speedrun’s API does not publish founder inboxes. This actor best-effort enriches contacts (website scrape + free MX/GitHub waterfall) and serves them from a periodically refreshed catalog so most runs stay fast. LinkedIn/website/social links are always included when present.

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Supported Inputs

Input type	Example	Behavior
Companies directory	https://speedrun.a16z.com/companies	Paginate the full catalog (or filtered subset)
Company profile	https://speedrun.a16z.com/companies/2weeks	Resolve slug → one company row
Empty startUrls	—	Defaults to the companies directory

Unsupported

• Authenticated / private Speedrun surfaces
• Invented founder emails (not published by the site)
• Non-Speedrun domains

Example startUrls

[
  "https://speedrun.a16z.com/companies",
  "https://speedrun.a16z.com/companies/2weeks"
]

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Use Cases

Audience	Use
Investors / scouts	Cohort pipelines, sector maps, founder LinkedIn lists
Sales / BD	Warm outreach to Speedrun startups by industry or region
Recruiters	Hiring signals from team size + founder backgrounds
Market researchers	Competitive scans across AI, Gaming, Fintech, etc.
Agencies	Enrich CRM lists with accelerator affiliation

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How It Works

1. Classify each start URL (directory vs company slug).
2. Call Speedrun’s public companies API with offset pagination.
3. Apply optional cohort / industry / region / search filters.
4. Map each company + founder_set into one dataset row.
5. Export JSON, CSV, Excel, or consume via Apify API / MCP.

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Input Configuration

Field	Type	Default	Description
startUrls	string[]	companies directory	Listing and/or /companies/{slug} URLs
cohort	string	all	e.g. SR006
industry	string	all	e.g. AI, Gaming, Fintech
region	string	all	e.g. America/Canada, Europe
search	string	—	Company or founder name search
enrichEmails	boolean	false	Opt-in: website scrape + free MX/SMTP/GitHub email waterfall
maxItems	integer	1000	Hard cap on companies
maxConcurrency	integer	10	Parallel company processing
proxy	object	off	Optional; API works without a proxy

Example — full catalog (capped)

{
  "startUrls": ["https://speedrun.a16z.com/companies"],
  "maxItems": 250
}

Example — one cohort + industry

{
  "startUrls": ["https://speedrun.a16z.com/companies"],
  "cohort": "SR006",
  "industry": "AI",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example — single company

{
  "startUrls": ["https://speedrun.a16z.com/companies/2weeks"],
  "maxItems": 1
}

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Output Overview

One row per company. Founders are nested under founders and also flattened into founderNames / founderLinkedins for easy CSV use.

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Output Samples

Start type: companies directory (first company alphabetically)

{
  "type": "company",
  "source": "a16z-speedrun",
  "companyId": "91edd679-b699-4a39-8695-a7a8decb9398",
  "slug": "2weeks",
  "companyUrl": "https://speedrun.a16z.com/companies/2weeks",
  "name": "2weeks",
  "cohort": "SR003",
  "industries": ["Gaming"],
  "foundedYear": 2024,
  "teamSize": 4,
  "location": "New York, America/Canada, United States of America",
  "websiteUrl": "https://2weeks.games",
  "linkedinUrl": "https://www.linkedin.com/company/2weeks-corp/",
  "xUrl": "https://x.com/2weeksgames",
  "founderCount": 2,
  "founderNames": ["Brandon Dillon", "Richard Foge"],
  "founderLinkedins": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/noughtceratops/",
    "https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-foge/"
  ],
  "founders": [
    {
      "founderId": "190f56ed-f93b-402e-ae8b-217a26ec74ef",
      "fullName": "Brandon Dillon",
      "title": "CEO and Co-Founder",
      "linkedinUrl": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/noughtceratops/"
    }
  ]
}

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Key Output Fields

Group	Fields
Identity	companyId, slug, companyUrl, name
Accelerator	cohort, industries, preamble, description
Company size	foundedYear, teamSize
Location	city, state, region, country, location
Links	websiteUrl, companyDomain, linkedinUrl, xUrl, githubUrl
Media	logo, coverImage, demoDayVideoUrl, gallery
Founders	founders[], founderCount, founderNames, founderLinkedins

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FAQ

Does this scrape founder emails?
Speedrun’s API does not publish emails. Turn on enrichEmails for a free waterfall: website mailto/contact pages, founder pattern guesses with MX/SMTP checks (when port 25 is open), and public GitHub commit/code harvest for @domain. Results land in contactEmail / contactEmails; full candidates + MX metadata in freeEmailEnrichment. SMTP is often blocked on cloud hosts — GitHub + site scrape still help. Optional GITHUB_TOKEN raises GitHub API limits.

How many companies are there?
About 240 at last recon; the API count field is authoritative per run.

Do I need a proxy?
Usually no. The public API returns 200 without a proxy. Enable Apify Proxy only if you hit rate limits.

Can I filter by cohort?
Yes — set cohort to SR001 … SR006.

What if I only want one company?
Paste its /companies/{slug} URL in startUrls and set maxItems: 1.

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Development / Tests

npm run test:unit           # offline unit tests
npm run test:contact        # live contact-email tests (profile text + website scrape)
npm run test:smoke:contact  # actor run on 5 lead companies — asserts contactEmail
npm run test:all            # unit + contact live + contact actor smoke

Contact data comes from:

1. Shared catalog — default path serves a periodically refreshed snapshot (companies + enrichments)
2. Profile text — emails pasted in Speedrun descriptions/bios (emailsMentioned → contactEmail)
3. Website scrape — enrichEmails: true on live runs harvests mailto/contact pages
4. Free OSINT waterfall — founder patterns + MX/SMTP + GitHub (freeEmailEnrichment)

Owner: refresh the shared catalog

Schedule a private run with raw input (not shown in the Store form):

{ "refreshCatalog": true, "maxItems": 1000 }

Requires actor env SPEEDRUN_CACHE_WRITE_TOKEN (Apify API token that can write the public KV store). Customer runs only need the public store ID (built-in).

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Support

• Open an issue on the Actor’s Issues tab in Apify Console
• Website: apify.com
• Custom scrapers: contact via Apify messaging

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Additional Services

Need a different accelerator directory, CRM export shape, or email-enrichment pipeline wired downstream? Ask for a custom build — same stack, tailored schema.

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Explore More Scrapers

Browse more directory and lead scrapers on Apify Store — including job-board and company-directory actors in the same portfolio style as this one.

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🤖 For AI Agents & LLM Apps

Purpose: Scrape a16z Speedrun portfolio companies + nested founders (no emails).
Minimal input:
{
  "startUrls": ["https://speedrun.a16z.com/companies"],
  "maxItems": 5
}
Key outputs (flat): type, source, companyId, slug, companyUrl, name, cohort,
industries, foundedYear, teamSize, location, websiteUrl, linkedinUrl, xUrl,
githubUrl, founderCount, founderNames, founderLinkedins, founders[], scrapedAt
Billing: typically pay-per-event / per dataset item once published — confirm on the Actor page.
Notes: public API; proxy optional; maxItems caps rows; empty startUrls defaults to /companies.

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⚠️ Disclaimer

This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), a16z Speedrun, or any of their subsidiaries. All trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners.

The scraper accesses only publicly available Speedrun company directory data — no authenticated endpoints, paid features, or content behind a login wall. Users are responsible for ensuring their use complies with speedrun.a16z.com’s Terms of Service, applicable data-protection law (GDPR, CCPA, etc.), and any contractual obligations of their own organization.

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