Hustle and Growth: The Handshake Journey

Garrett Lord is co-founder and CEO of Handshake, which started as a career network for college students and new grads but recently discovered something extraordinary: they were sitting on the world’s largest network of academic experts—exactly what frontier AI labs desperately needed. With 500,000 PhDs and 3 million advanced degree holders creating training data, in just eight months they’ve built a new business that hit $50 million in revenue in its first four months and is on track to blow past $100M in the first 12 months.

What you’ll learn:

1. How Handshake found an opportunity to leverage their proprietary network of experts to launch a data-labeling business that’s on track to blow past $100 million ARR in 12 months

2. Why AI models need human experts (e.g. physics PhDs) to improve, and what this “data labeling” actually involves

3. Inside the actual work: what a biology PhD does for 8 hours that makes GPT-5 smarter

4. The playbook for building a startup inside a startup: separate teams, separate offices, separate everything

5. Why the shift from “generalist” to “expert” data labeling created a once-in-a-lifetime business opportunity

6. Why AI won’t eliminate entry-level jobs—it’s creating “Iron Man suits” that make junior employees 10x more productive

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Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-handshake-garrett-lord

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My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/171410958/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation

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Where to find Garrett Lord:

• X: https://x.com/garrettlord

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettlord/

• Email: Garrett@joinhandshake.com

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction to Garrett Lord

(05:00) Understanding data labeling and its importance

(13:08) The role of experts in AI model training

(15:35) The future of AI and human collaboration

(24:17) Why AI won’t eliminate entry-level jobs

(27:58) The continuous improvement of AI models

(33:05) The emergence of Handshake’s new business model

(37:07) Incubating new ideas in established companies

(40:42) Handshake's competitive advantage

(45:43) Scaling up and meeting market demand

(48:38) Overcoming challenges and adapting

(53:08) The importance of separate teams and ownership

(57:26) The future of job matching with AI

(01:00:30) The biggest bottlenecks to advancing models further

(01:02:37) Lightning round and final thoughts

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Referenced:

• GPQA: https://github.com/idavidrein/gpqa

• Handshake: https://joinhandshake.com/

• OpenAI’s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai

• Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months—one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder and CEO of StackBlitz): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons

• Goldman Sachs: https://www.goldmansachs.com/

• General Motors: https://www.gm.com/

• Google: https://about.google/

• Sahil Bhaiwala on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahil-bhaiwala-459b0354/

• Francisco “Paco” Guzman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guzmanhe/

• Avery Yip on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/averyyip/

• Game of Thrones on HBO: https://www.hbomax.com/shows/game-of-thrones/4f6b4985-2dc9-4ab6-ac79-d60f0860b0ac

• SNOO: https://www.happiestbaby.com/products/snoo-smart-bassinet

• Careers at Handshake: https://joinhandshake.com/careers/

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Recommended books:

• Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future: https://www.amazon.com/Zero-One-Notes-Startups-Future/dp/0804139296

• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers―Straight Talk on the Challenges of Entrepreneurship: https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0062273205

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.