Arvind founded 2 billion-dollar startups—by doing everything lean startup tells you not to do.
- He didn’t focus on launching an MVP.
- He ignored early market feedback.
- He didn’t charge beta users anything— for 2 years.
And it worked.
He went from $0 to $3M in revenue the year he launched publicly. He tripled to about $9M the year after. And tripled every year since.
Two months ago, Glean raised $200M at a $2B valuation.
Why you should listen:
- Learn exactly how outlier founder Arvind Jain does things differently at the 0 to 1 stage.
- Why he thinks conviction and persistence are the most important qualities founders need.
- When you should follow playbooks and when to write your own.
- Why it might not matter that most people don't "get" your idea in the early days.
Timestamps:
(2:02) Leaving Google
(3:39) Coming up with Glean
(7:47) Building a Product in a Neglected Space
(11:38) Skipping Lean Startup
(14:11) Using design partners
(16:13) Building for 2 years, with 0 revenue
(20:13) When it's time to launch
(21:12) Why AI was a key tailwind
(26:25) Finding Product Market Fit on Day One
(27:32) One Piece of Advice
Send me a message to let me know what you think!
