# Jean-Denis Greze

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/builders/jean-denis-greze/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

Real Alpha has cut 8 moments of Jean-Denis Greze (Co-founder & CEO, Town) talking, from an interview on a16z Podcast published Oct 19, 2026.

- Role: Co-founder & CEO, Town
- About: Led Plaid’s EPD from $10M to $300M+ in ARR, then co-founded Town, an AI assistant for everyday work.
- Company: [Town](https://realalpha.app/companies/#town)
- On X: https://x.com/jgreze

## What Jean-Denis Greze said

- [A nearly $1M tax business still wasn’t venture scale](https://realalpha.app/s/a-nearly-1m-tax-business-still-wasnt-venture-scale/)
  a16z Podcast · Oct 19, 2026 · 7 min
  > “But post-AI, this was not going to be a venture-scale company.” — Jean-Denis Greze · [4:53](https://realalpha.app/v/o_5f4N6Nq80/?t=293)
- [A $1 monthly routine can save a restaurant thousands](https://realalpha.app/s/a-1-monthly-routine-can-save-a-restaurant-thousands/)
  a16z Podcast · Oct 19, 2026 · 3 min
  > “it's going to cost you like a dollar a month to run that thing.” — Jean-Denis Greze · [25:54](https://realalpha.app/v/o_5f4N6Nq80/?t=1554)
- [AI can make custom software scale better than FDEs](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-can-make-custom-software-scale-better-than-fdes/)
  a16z Podcast · Oct 19, 2026 · 5 min
  > “as the models get better, the FDE approach actually gets much worse.” — Jean-Denis Greze · [33:20](https://realalpha.app/v/o_5f4N6Nq80/?t=2000)
- [Town competes with AI labs through neutral models and portable data](https://realalpha.app/s/town-competes-with-ai-labs-through-neutral-models-and/)
  a16z Podcast · Oct 19, 2026 · 8 min
  > “that if there was ever a better solution than town, switching to that other solution would take a day.” — Jean-Denis Greze · [38:13](https://realalpha.app/v/o_5f4N6Nq80/?t=2293)
- [Agents should answer to users, not advertisers](https://realalpha.app/s/agents-should-answer-to-users-not-advertisers/)
  a16z Podcast · Oct 19, 2026 · 7 min
  > “The only source of money for the agent is your wallet as the user.” — Jean-Denis Greze · [54:47](https://realalpha.app/v/o_5f4N6Nq80/?t=3287)
- [Town earns access to company systems in stages](https://realalpha.app/s/town-earns-access-to-company-systems-in-stages/)
  a16z Podcast · Oct 19, 2026 · 3 min
  > “simply by connecting their email and their calendar.” — Jean-Denis Greze · [19:24](https://realalpha.app/v/o_5f4N6Nq80/?t=1164)
- [AI adoption depends on showing people what to automate](https://realalpha.app/s/ai-adoption-depends-on-showing-people-what-to-automate/)
  a16z Podcast · Oct 19, 2026 · 3 min
  > “and the unlock is, is there someone over there that gets AI enough to want to tinker a solution to their problem?” — Jean-Denis Greze · [46:32](https://realalpha.app/v/o_5f4N6Nq80/?t=2792)
- [Great user experience should come before enterprise controls](https://realalpha.app/s/great-user-experience-should-come-before-enterprise-controls/)
  a16z Podcast · Oct 19, 2026 · 3 min
  > “It is almost impossible to go from an experience that starts from the compliance IT enterprise requirements and then figures out how to make the product experience incredible” — Jean-Denis Greze · [14:19](https://realalpha.app/v/o_5f4N6Nq80/?t=859)

## The episode

- [Why a $1M Startup Wasn’t Worth Building in the Age of AI](https://realalpha.app/v/o_5f4N6Nq80/) · a16z Podcast · Oct 19, 2026