Arvind Jain, CEO of Glean, and Mamoon Hamid, partner at Kleiner Perkins, discuss the state of the AI business, building great products, Arvind's childhood, leaving Google, Glean vs. Rubrik, the future of work, AI hype, picking a venture capitalist, and the meaning of 'grit' in building a startup.
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Quick takeaways
Glean started with the vision of providing a high-quality search product for employees, and now faces the challenge of staying ahead of competitors in the AI-powered productivity tools market.
Building a product that solves a problem for a large number of people is exciting and fulfilling, but it also comes with challenges and the need for constant balance and difficult decisions.
Deep dives
Building a Product that Solves Challenges
Building a product that can help a lot of people is challenging but when the challenges are overcome, it feels like magic. The journey involves facing difficulties and handling challenging issues. Giving something, such as hard work, is necessary to achieve success. The opportunity to build great products is the reward for the hard work.
Glean's Evolution and Increasing Stakes
Glean started with the vision of providing a high-quality search product for employees. Initially, they had to convince people of the importance of good search. However, now the demand for AI-powered productivity tools has increased, and Glean is in a competitive market. The stakes are higher, and staying ahead of the competition while meeting customer demands is crucial.
The Pressure of Building a Company
As Glean gains recognition, the pressure and expectations for the business grow. There is a need to stay ahead of competitors and meet customer demands. This creates higher stakes, increased urgency, and more pressure to execute and make progress. The focus now is on scalability and execution for long-term success.
The Journey of Building and Working on Products
Building a product that solves a problem for a large number of people is exciting and fulfilling. While the journey includes challenges and difficulties, the satisfaction of solving those problems and making people's lives easier is worth it. There is a constant need to balance the excitement of building products with the realities of the daily grind and difficult decisions.
Guest: Arvind Jain, Founder and CEO of Glean, and Mamoon Hamid, partner at Kleiner Perkins
“I’m an engineer, so I have doubts about everything,” says Glean founder and CEO Arvind Jain. Well ... almost everything. Since launching Glean in 2019, he has held to the belief that “all of us are going to have really powerful AI assistants” in the future. With a several-year lead on generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Glean has built a growing club of CIO fans. With the broad acceptance of AI over the past year, Arvind says, “the level of confidence is higher than ever before.”
In this episode, Arvind, Mamoon, and Joubin discuss golfer hats, ideas vs. execution, X1, energy audits, small towns in India, IIT, proving yourself, Rubrik, rejecting product-led growth, “workplace assistants,” CIO fans, internet ’94, Parker Conrad, and work as a hobby.