He built the top AI agent startup | Flo Crivello, Former PM, now CEO & Founder, Lindy AI
Product Growth Podcast
Intro
This chapter explores the role of AI agents as potential replacements for traditional team members, advocating for a focus on orchestration. It also examines the integration of these agents with current tools, brand reputation concerns, and insights into hiring a key engineer.
If you’ve ever said “I just wish I had an assistant who knew exactly how I think”... Lindy is that assistant. These agents aren’t demos. They’re real, customizable workflows anyone can build. No code.
Flo Crivello (founder of Lindy and ex-Cruise/YC) joined us to show how his personal AI stack runs his entire workday: From triaging emails, summarizing meetings, blocking spam, managing contacts, and even sourcing candidates.
We’re not talking theory here. You’ll see what’s possible today (no prompting skills, no code), just real agents doing real work when you give them instructions in plain English Language.
If you’ve ever wondered: “What can AI actually do for me right now?”
This episode answers it - line by line, screen by screen.
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Brought to you by:
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Timestamps:
AI Agents Can Replace Your Team - 00:00:00
The Top 5 AI Agents Every Entrepreneur Needs - 00:03:13
The Golden Framework: When to Build an Agent - 00:08:50
Keeping AI Agents Safe Without Killing Innovation - 00:09:42
From Doer to Orchestrator: The New Management Mindset - 00:11:08
Lindy vs ChatGPT: Individual Tools vs Work Platforms - 00:13:23
Managing Agent Performance, Permissions & Costs - 00:14:26
AD: Mobbin - 00:15:56
AD: Jira Product Discovery - 00:16:55
Managing Context and Token Costs - 00:17:51
Lindy vs Competitors and Zapier - 00:18:58
Inside Lindy's 5x Growth in 6 Months - 00:20:38
The Salesperson Managing 40 AI Employees - 00:21:45
The Soham Scandal: Hiring the 5-Job Engineer - 00:23:20
From PM to AI Visionary: The Founding Story - 00:28:24
AD: Maven - 00:31:21
AD: AI PM Certification - 00:32:08
The Pivot Philosophy: Action Produces Information - 00:32:54
Should Every PM Become an AI Founder? - 00:37:17
Talk to Customers, Build Product: Skip Everything Else - 00:38:45
The Valley of Death: Surviving the Hardest Pivot - 00:41:02
The AI Agent Agency Gold Rush - 00:44:08
Big Tech is Missing the AI Agent Revolution - 00:47:42
The 10-Year Vision: Fully Autonomous Companies - 00:48:01
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Key Takeaways:
Takeaways:
01. Most startups are stuck in execution mode, when they should be in vision mode. Instead of spending 80% of time shipping and 20% dreaming, it should be the reverse. The best early-stage companies obsess over the product like artists—not analysts. That’s how you create something magnetic from day one. Not with OKRs. With taste.
2. AI agents aren’t just features, they’re teammates. The real unlock with agents is that they collaborate like coworkers. You don’t “use” them, you talk to them. You delegate. They respond. They improve. And suddenly you’re not just automating—you’re offloading real cognitive work.
3. You don’t build AI, you build trust. That’s the actual job. Trust is earned slowly: confirmation prompts, human-in-the-loop controls, clear audit trails. Give users the steering wheel first… and gradually ease them into self-driving. That’s how agents move from novelty to necessity.
4. The smaller the scope, the sharper the tool. Most teams overbuild. The smarter play is to shrink the surface area until there’s zero ambiguity. That’s when you get magic: crisp execution, no confusion, and fast iteration. Think razor blade, not Swiss Army knife.
5. From systems thinking to obsessive craft. Coming from Uber taught how to reason through complex marketplaces. But what unlocked breakthrough product thinking was obsessing over the UX like an artist—not just designing for logic, but for love.
6. The future of work is voice → delegation → done.
You won’t click through dashboards or jump tabs. You’ll just say, “Handle my recruiting outreach,” and it’ll happen. Behind the scenes: agents coordinating tasks, tracking progress, personalizing copy. And all you did was ask.
7. Write Like Your Career Depends on It, Because It Does. Clarity of thought = clarity of writing. He said the best PMs he’s worked with are excellent writers. Not because it looks good, but because it reflects structured thinking.
8. Product Sense Is a Muscle. He builds product by imagining it from the user’s emotional POV. Not “What features should we ship?” but “What would delight the user in this moment?”
9. You Can't Delegate Taste. No matter how senior you are, if you're not involved in the details of product quality, you’ll lose the magic. He reviews designs himself, edits copy, and obsesses over UX, because product taste is not outsourceable.
10. Go Where Product Is Sacred. A PM’s growth is tied to the culture. He picked Uber because product rigor was high. At Lindy, he made product obsession part of the DNA. If your company doesn’t value product deeply, leave.
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Check out the conversation on Apple, Spotify and YouTube.
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