Why Did Alex Rampell Think Town Was a Tax Tool?

Alex Rampell thought Jean-Denis Greze was still building an SMB tax tool. Ben Horowitz pinged Alex Rampell about an amazing tool called Town that had changed his life. Alex Rampell realized Town was Jean-Denis Greze's company, texted him because the tax story no longer made sense, and a week later the two became partners.

Alex Rampell, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, had led the firm's investment in Plaid while Jean-Denis Greze was CTO. After Jean-Denis Greze left to start a company, they had coffee in Menlo or Palo Alto, and Jean-Denis Greze said the new company was an SMB tax tool. Alex Rampell thought that sounded rough and kept a happy face. Ben Horowitz later pinged him about Town. Alex Rampell figured an app would fall under his fund, then got confused because Jean-Denis Greze did SMB tax. Alex Rampell texted Jean-Denis Greze, and a week later they became partners.

Jean-Denis Greze had left Plaid and taken a few months off with family, then looked for business markets where AI could change the product. Tax made sense because there is a lot of text in tax, LLMs are very good at text, and the inputs come as structured formats such as financials and lease documents.