Special is building an operating system to transform critical American industries with AI
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Justin and I spent the majority of 2025 working at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leading the Small Agencies team. DOGE’s mission was simple but ambitious: reduce the federal deficit from $2 trillion, and make our government work better for all Americans. We believe the United States is the greatest country in the world, and that our deficit is an existential threat to our supremacy.
When we left in September 2025, the DOGE team collectively saved hundreds of billions of dollars, but we knew there was more work to do. Justin and I left motivated to extend the ethos of our work at DOGE back into the private sector.
We decided to look at something a lot of people in technology forget about—the $10 trillion Main Street services economy.
Similar to the government, Main Street is massive, highly unoptimized, and provides essential services to Americans. One needs to look no further than childcare learning centers in Minnesota or hospice businesses in California to find immense waste at the state level from businesses that benefit from taxpayer dollars.
AI provides a generational opportunity to transform the efficiency of these businesses, root out waste, and deliver a great customer experience for American taxpayers. Through this process, we believe we can set a new standard for how these businesses should operate.
To achieve this, Special is building an operating system to transform critical American industries with AI. We call it SpecialOS.
Today, the foundation of our OS leverages frontier models with proprietary tools built to automate manual tasks inside critical services businesses. We believe the best way to capture value from SpecialOS is to vertically integrate: to acquire companies in targeted industries and control the deployment and customer experience.
Our first vertical is focused on the aging population of the US, called Figure Health. We’re using SpecialOS to equip owners with the AI tools they need to win, then using those efficiencies to increase nurse pay. Our bet is this will help attract more and better talent in a supply constrained market, resulting in better healthcare for America’s seniors.
We’re already under contract with our first acquisition in Texas which serves over 1,400 patients and employs hundreds of nurses. In the spirit of DOGE, Figure Health plans to open source all of its billing claims, allowing the public to have full visibility into our Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.
Over time, we will launch new verticals in other critical industries with complex labor and regulatory dynamics. Our long term vision is to build a public company that anyone can own and everyone can believe in.
Our name “Special” is a tribute to those we believe are the greatest movers of society — the builders, the creators, the people who put it all on the line and go for it.
In many ways, the business owners we hope to partner with view themselves in the same category as the all-time greats. And we believe that they are.
How can you tell if something is special? My answer is simple: you know it when you see it.
Today, we’re excited to announce a new financing led by Andreessen Horowitz, along with our DOGE teammates: Steve Davis, Antonio Gracias, Anthony Armstrong, Donald Park, Baris Akis from Human Capital, and Adam Ramada and Brooks Morgan from BANNER VC. Brian Armstrong from Coinbase and Shyam Sankar from Palantir also invested.
Special pledges allegiance not only to the United States, but to those in the arena: the ones courageous enough to take risks that move the world forward.
If this is you, you will know, and this message will resonate. If so, we would love to partner in changing the world, because you are few and far between. Let’s do it. This newsletter is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. Furthermore, this content is not investment advice, nor is it intended for use by any investors or prospective investors in any a16z funds. This newsletter may link to other websites or contain other information obtained from third-party sources - a16z has not independently verified nor makes any representations about the current or enduring accuracy of such information. If this content includes third-party advertisements, a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content or related companies contained therein. Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z; visit https://a16z.com/investment-list/ for a full list of investments. Other important information can be found at a16z.com/disclosures. You’re receiving this newsletter since you opted in earlier; if you would like to opt out of future newsletters you may unsubscribe immediately.