Nathan LandsFounder and investor

Building and backing startups that help America win.

Illustrated portrait of Nathan Lands

Four-time founder. Investor in Factory, Erebor and SF Compute. a16z Scout. Raised in Alabama. Tornado survivor.

Each company, and what I did there.

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Newspaper clipping headlined At least 4 die in Arab tornado, above a photo of rescue workers searching ruins
February 16, 1995. Rescue workers search the ruins in Arab, Alabama. Associated Press photo, from a newspaper clipping.

Chapter one Joppa, Alabama

Tornado hit without warning

4:25 a.m.
Lightning knocks out the weather radar in Huntsville.
4:59 a.m.
A tornado touches down three miles west of Joppa. No warning has been issued.
Minutes later
I am ten. My mother picks me up and runs. I watch the walls shake like Jell-O. Then they pop, and everything goes black.

That was chapter one. Since then: a business inside a video game, two TV commercials in Taiwan, a word I coined, four companies, and a film studio founded with the producer of The Lord of the Rings.

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