# Yoko Li

> Yoko Li is a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) focused on AI and infrastructure investments. A former software engineer and product manager, she brings hands-on technical depth to her investing work - building open source AI demos like AI Town and AI Tamago, creating cartoon explainers about machine learning, and writing benchmark analyses like TetrisBench. She sits at the crossroads of engineering craft and capital, backing companies like Resend, Mintlify, Clerk, Stainless, and Phota Labs while remaining an active contributor to the developer community.

- **Role:** Partner at Andreessen Horowitz
- **Organizations:** Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Rice University Alumni
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, Rice University
- **Known for:** Partner at Andreessen Horowitz focused on AI and infrastructure investments, Board Member at Resend and Relace; Board Observer at Mintlify, Clerk, Inngest, and Phota Labs, Created AI Town - widely-cited open source AI agent demo on GitHub (MIT licensed)

## Career timeline

- **2015** — Joined AppDynamics as Software Engineer, building developer tools with React and Angular
- **2017** — Joined Transposit as Founding Engineer and later Product Manager
- **2021** — Joined HashiCorp as Senior Product Manager for Terraform Cloud
- **2022** — Joined Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as Partner focused on AI, Infrastructure, and Developer Tools
- **2023** — Created AI Town - open source virtual settlement with autonomous AI agents (MIT licensed)
- **2023** — Built AI Tamago - LLM-driven digital pet using LLaMA 2 7B in pure JavaScript
- **2024** — Published 'Nine Emerging Developer Patterns for the AI Era' co-authored essay
- **2025** — Built TetrisBench - benchmark testing LLMs on Tetris gameplay; led to a16z article on AI coding stacks
- **2025** — Active investments include Resend, Mintlify, Clerk, Stainless, Inngest, Phota Labs, Relace

## Achievements

- Partner at Andreessen Horowitz focused on AI and infrastructure investments
- Board Member at Resend and Relace; Board Observer at Mintlify, Clerk, Inngest, and Phota Labs
- Created AI Town - widely-cited open source AI agent demo on GitHub (MIT licensed)
- Built TetrisBench - novel LLM evaluation benchmark using Tetris gameplay
- Co-authored 'Nine Emerging Developer Patterns for the AI Era' on a16z blog
- Co-authored 'The Trillion Dollar AI Software Development Stack' with Guido Appenzeller
- Created AI Explained - illustrated cartoon series demystifying machine learning concepts
- Active open source contributor under GitHub handle ykhli
- Speaker and podcast guest on a16z podcasts covering AI agents, infrastructure, and developer tools

## Latest updates

- **2025-05** — Published analysis on the trillion-dollar AI software development stack with Guido Appenzeller
- **2025-04** — Released TetrisBench article on a16z blog comparing LLM Tetris-playing strategies
- **2025-03** — Podcast on MCP co-creator and the next wave of LLM innovation
- **2025-02** — Podcast on automating developer email with MCP and AI agents (featuring Resend portfolio co)
- **2024-11** — Co-authored 'Nine Emerging Developer Patterns for the AI Era'
- **2024-06** — Led a16z investment in Phota Labs ($5.6M seed) - generative AI for photography

## Links

- Website: https://yoko.dev
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yokoli
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/stuffyokodraws
- GitHub: https://github.com/ykhli
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stuffyokodraws/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/yoko-li
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-05-08