Co-founder @instacart šŸ„•, Ex-@angellist

Joined February 2007
73 Photos and videos
Brandon Leonardo retweeted
I just sequenced a human genome to 30Ɨ coverage entirely at home. As far as I know, this is the first time this has been done. I didn’t step foot in a lab once. Every step - from saliva collection, to running the sequencer - took place in a single room with a dining table kitchenette. Six weeks ago, I had never done wet lab biology before. I used an Oxford Nanopore P2 Solo - the only commercially available sequencing device portable enough to do 30x human genome sequencing at home. Biggest takeaway - I could build something that combined software, hardware, and molecular biology far faster than I thought was possible. I can name >100 specific instances where AI helped me solve a technical problem that would previously have blocked me because I lacked access to a domain expert. For example: how do I save my sequencing run when my DNA extraction yield is 4x lower than I need it to be, and I have this limited set of reagents to hand? To make this work, I had to navigate multiple disciplines: - writing software to monitor sequencing runs and orchestrate remote GPU infra for basecalling - learning executing 5 hour long molecular biology protocols - building a hardware device to quantify DNA concentration Apologies for the hyperbole, but I feel super lucky to be living in 2026. A few weeks ago I decided to sequence a human genome to 30x at home. Then I actually did it. And I did it really quickly.
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
šŸš€ After a year of quiet building, I’m excited to officially announce @champ_hq out of stealth. We're also announcing our $8.5M Seed round led by @Redpoint with participation from @defyvc , @Max , @svangel, and a great group of angels. Watch the quick launch video below
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
Announcing: USVC AngelList exists to power the innovation economy. To date, we have powered $125 billion in assets, 25,000 funds, and 13,000 startups. Today, we’re opening it for retail access. @usvc_ is a regulated fund that holds stakes in promising private companies. There are no accreditation requirements and anyone can get started with as little as $500. Early portfolio includes xAI, Anthropic, OpenAI, Sierra, Vercel, Crusoe, and Legora. Own a stake in the companies defining the future. Learn more: usvc.com/
Community note
The post may imply more direct access than the filings support. Per the fund’s own filings, liquidity is board-controlled, fees include up to 3% sales load 1.00% management fee acquired fund fees, and exposure may be via SPVs/VC funds, not direct stakes. usvc.com/documents/USVC…
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
Apr 16
Some personal news! Recently, I stepped back from the day-to-day at @Instacart to focus on investing full-time. I sat down with my friend @jaltma on Uncapped to talk about building Instacart and my philosophy on early-stage investing — check it out here!
For this episode of Uncapped I got to sit down with my close friend @Max, cofounder of Instacart šŸ„• We talked about the key moments of Instacart...how it got started, critical wins, tough losses, competitive dynamics, earned insights, going public, and Instacart's future. Max is also an awesome startup investor, and we talked about what he looks for in founders, consumer investing, and what he's building with Workshop. He's one of the best people I know, hope you enjoy. (0:00) Intro (0:36) The inception of Instacart (4:55) Finding product market fit (7:20) Landing Trader Joe’s (11:04) Big levers for growth (13:36) Operationally complex businesses (14:55) Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods (17:50) COVID and Instacart’s IPO (20:02) Prioritizing profitability (23:21) Avoiding temptations (24:59) The future of Instacart (25:53) Investing in consumer (28:21) Irrationally optimistic founders (29:49) B2B vs consumer founders (30:35) How to work with investors (33:38) Building Workshop
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted

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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
Most people send 10% as many text messages as they should. You should text your old friends when you think of them, you should text your new friends about the weather. You should text ex-girlfriends way more often. You should text mom more often but everyone agrees with that
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
As a mother, I’ve always felt at odds with @YouTube. The autoplay. The algorithm. The hyper-fast, overstimulating content. It’s everything IĀ don’tĀ want for my kids—but it's just SO freaking convenient. My 3 year-old son first started off watching real diggers and excavators work, often without any sound. Or airplanes taking off and landing. And he loved Ms Rachel. We thought we were being as mindful as we could, but no matter what content we showed him or how we transitioned to something else, he had a tantrum when we turned it off. At @playpokpok, we hear this same story from so many parents. That uneasy feeling of switching on YouTube, knowing the content might be more addictive than enriching. That’s why today feels like such a full-circle moment: we’re launching Studio Pok Pok —a calm, thoughtful channel for kids that puts education and creativityĀ beforeĀ clicks and chaos. From the beginning, our vision at Pok Pok has been to reimagine screen time for young children. What started as an award-winning app is now growing into something bigger: an entire brand wholeheartedly dedicated to mindful, non-addictive content that supports how kidsĀ reallyĀ learn and play. We know that families are searching for something different—something they can feel good about handing over to their kids. This channel is for them. šŸŽ„ Expect slow-paced, Montessori-inspired videos rooted in curiosity, not attention-grabbing gimmicks. šŸ’” Content that sparks imagination, not hyperactivity. ā¤ļø And a deep respect for childhood at every turn. If that sounds like a breath of fresh air, we hope you’ll check it out and be one of our first subscribers. We’re just getting started. šŸ’« youtube.com/@studiopokpok
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
Introducing Exponent, a highly capable programming agent. You can get early access today to start using Exponent's clean, developer-focused UX for any software engineering task from exploration to deployment.
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
Yes. Standard Time year round please.
7 Mar 2025
Do you want to see Daylight Savings come to an end?
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
We have confirmation #BlueGhost stuck the landing! Firefly just became the first commercial company in history to achieve a fully successful Moon landing. This small step on the Moon represents a giant leap in commercial exploration. Congratulations to the entire Firefly team, our mission partners, and our @NASA customers for this incredible feat that paves the way for future missions to the Moon and Mars. Standby for the first image, expected in the next 30 minutes! #BGM1
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
27 Feb 2025
Congrats on the launch @camillevanhorne and Ashish!
Replying to @GreylockVC
Highstock is founded by @camillevanhorne and Ashish Sinha, who were pivotal builders during Instacart's earliest days. They saw the need to revolutionize this problem in commerce and applied their deep experience building marketplaces at scale. highstock.com/blog/introduci…
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
25 Feb 2025
It’s not an AI agent unless it comes from the agentic region of Palo Alto. Otherwise, it’s just an AI-enabled workflow.
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
levels in tech: -junior eng -mid level eng -senior eng -staff eng -senior staff eng -principal eng -farmer
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
Jevons paradox strikes again! As AI gets more efficient and accessible, we will see its use skyrocket, turning it into a commodity we just can't get enough of. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevo…
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
23 Jan 2025
Super excited to work with @OpenAI on today's Operator launch — it's the first consumer AI agent I've seen that's *actually* useful...for example, it can shop on @Instacart for you youtube.com/watch?v=CSE77wAd…
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
22 Jan 2025
Many product managers don't bind their ambitions with humility. They don't work on small things at all. So, small things get worse and they don't learn how to fix problems. They, therefore, fail at fixing big problems and big things also get worse. This is why it is such a bad idea to tell PMs to avoid fixing broken windows. If you are a junior PM. Just fix bugs. Start there. Fix things that are obviously broken. Do not allow yourself to even think about "strategy". Just wake up every day and fix small things, every day. This gives you at bats learnings how to do things and it will ready you for the moment when you need to fix bigger things.
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
15 Jan 2025
pgvector is insane. i don't understand why vector databases exist.
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Brandon Leonardo retweeted
19 Dec 2024
We're hiring a senior designer to join a small team working on exciting 0-1 šŸ„•AI projects... please apply (or DM me your portfolio link!): instacart.careers/job/?id=64…

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