The space of enterprise search and knowledge management is on the cusp of being dramatically transformed by AI-native tools that can find, analyze and synthesize information instantly for knowledge workers. An emerging leader in this category is Glean. Valued at $1B and serving over a hundred enterprise customers today, Glean leverages an enterprise-grade knowledge graph and LLMs (large language models) to help companies find and use their institutional knowledge across hundreds of internal tools and SaaS applications.  

In this episode, Sandhya Hegde (GP at Unusual Ventures) interviews Glean CEO and co-founder Arvind Jain on their path to product-market fit. Join us as we cover:

• (1:49) The technological shifts Arvind has observed throughout his career
• (5:11) How Modern AI is forcing us to rethink how we build products
• (8:00) Arvind’s inspiration for starting Glean
• (17:10) How Glean pinpointed their early “desperate” customer and built their MVP
• (20:14) The difference between consumer search and enterprise search
• (24:45) How Glean uses LLMs within its core product
• (30:40) The impact of AI on knowledge management systems 
• (34:41) How Glean’s solves for “hallucination” by constraining their model with the right knowledge
• (38:41) How Glean is scaling its go-to-market strategy using an enterprise sales model
• (40:51) Advice for founders about navigating the shift to AI

Sandhya Hegde is a General Partner at Unusual Ventures, leading investments in modern SaaS companies with a focus on AI. Previously an early executive at Amplitude, Sandhya is a product-led growth (PLG) coach and mentor. She can be reached at sandhya@unusual.vc and 

• Twitter - https://twitter.com/sandhya

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhyahegde/

Arvind Jain is the CEO of Glean. Prior to Glean, Arvind co-founded Rubrik, one the fastest growing companies in cloud data management, and worked at Google, where he spent over a decade leading various teams in Search, Maps, and YouTube.

Unusual Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm designed from the ground up to give a distinct advantage to founders building the next generation of software companies. Unusual has invested in category-defining companies like Webflow, Arctic Wolf Networks, Carta, Robinhood and Harness. Learn more about us at https://www.unusual.vc/.

Further reading from the Startup Field Guide:

• Starting the sales process: https://www.field-guide.unusual.vc/field-guide-enterprise/qualification-before-discovery

• How founders can shape the future of Generative AI: https://www.unusual.vc/post/how-startup-founders-can-shape-the-future-of-generative-ai