Arvind Jain: Why Now Is the Time to Solve Enterprise Search
Feb 20, 2025
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Arvind Jain, Founder and CEO of Glean, the AI-driven enterprise search company, dives into the complexities of enterprise search and how AI can revolutionize it. He discusses the pivotal role of transformer-based models and their integration with cloud systems. The conversation touches on competition as a catalyst for innovation and the challenges and cultural shifts needed for AI integration. Jain also reflects on his journey from Rubrik to Glean, sharing insights on leadership and the exciting potential of future AI technologies.
Glean was founded to address the productivity issues caused by fragmented data across systems, emphasizing the need for effective enterprise search solutions.
The rise of AI technologies, particularly ChatGPT, has significantly boosted interest in Glean's offerings and highlighted the potential of advanced enterprise search capabilities.
Deep dives
The Origins of Glean
Glean was founded in 2019 to address the challenges companies face as they scale, particularly in regards to productivity drops due to fragmented data across different systems. The founder, inspired by his experiences at Rubrik, identified that employees were struggling to find the information and resources they needed to work efficiently. As a search engineer with years of experience at Google, he recognized that existing search products were inadequate for enterprise needs. This insight led to the creation of Glean, focusing on developing a powerful internal search tool that could unify disparate data and ultimately increase productivity within organizations.
Integration and Security in Enterprise Search
Glean's approach to solving enterprise search challenges involves creating integrations with various SaaS platforms and handling secure access to information. The company prioritizes building connections with systems like Confluence, Jira, Google Drive, and SharePoint, leveraging available APIs to gather and organize data. Security is a key component of their search technology, ensuring that sensitive information is only accessible to authorized users. This emphasis on permission-aware access distinguishes Glean's search solution from typical web-based search engines that offer unrestricted information retrieval.
Finding Product-Market Fit Amidst Competition
Initially, the market perception of search technology was that it was a non-essential 'vitamin' rather than a 'painkiller,' making it challenging for Glean to establish a strong foothold. It took significant effort in educating the industry about the limitations of traditional search systems and the potential benefits of Glean’s technology, which allows users to search in natural language for better accuracy. The breakthrough came when notable tech companies began embracing Glean, leading to widespread word-of-mouth promotion. The launch of ChatGPT also acted as a tidal wave of interest, showcasing the power of advanced AI and creating organic demand for Glean's offerings.
Leveraging Competition for Growth
Glean embraces competition as a driving force behind innovation and urgency within its team, spurring creativity and technological advancement. The founder notes that competing products not only push them to improve but also provide inspiration for new ideas and features. Over the past year, the company has experienced tremendous growth, crossing 100 million ARR due to its advanced product and the overall demand for AI tools that enhance employee productivity. The ongoing evolution in AI is positioned to open even more avenues for Glean as businesses increasingly desire integrated solutions that facilitate seamless access to enterprise knowledge and build workflows that transform daily tasks.
Enterprise search is a problem that’s plagued companies since the advent of working on computers. Now, AI promises solutions. In this week’s episode, host Michael Mignano from Lightspeed sits down with Arvind Jain, founder and CEO of Glean, to discuss the evolution of AI-assisted enterprise search. Arvind shares what insights helped to start Glean's journey in 2019, how the company leveraged transformer-based models early on, and how Glean developed the market for this product. They also talk about competition, the technical aspects of integrating Glean across SaaS platforms, and the monumental impact of ChatGPT on the industry.
Episode Chapters
(00:00) Introduction
(01:15) Why Arvind Created Glean to Solve Enterprise Search Problems
(03:50) Technical Foundations: Building Glean with Transformers
(09:04) Product Market Fit and Early Challenges
(12:16) The Impact of ChatGPT and Market Evolution
(13:42) Glean's Architecture and Model Integration
(17:58) The Future of AI in Enterprises
(27:52) Leadership, Competition, and Company Culture
(35:48) Reflections and Lessons from Rubrik to Glean