Grit

#160 CEO Grammarly, Rahul Roy-Chowdhury: Better, Not More

Oct 16, 2023

01:02:56

Snipd AI

Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, CEO of Grammarly, discusses the potential of AI and responsible technology, their journey to becoming CEO, the importance of focusing on problems rather than solutions, and the power of 'grit' in leveraging technology innovation for communication and productivity.

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Quick takeaways

One key decision-making framework at Grammarly is to prioritize user trust and align incentives, ensuring that all decisions prioritize earning and strengthening user trust.

Grammarly made the decision to put the Grammarly for Developers project on hold and eventually deprecate it, after re-evaluating its value proposition and product roadmap in light of evolving AI technologies and core priorities.

Grammarly's decision-making framework involves clearly identifying the decision-maker, fostering open and candid dialogue, and ensuring team members both disagree and commit to decisions, fostering understanding and alignment.

Deep dives

User Trust and Alignment of Incentives

One of the key decision-making frameworks at Grammarly is ensuring user trust and aligning incentives. All decisions should prioritize earning and strengthening user trust, which is achieved by ensuring the company's incentives align with the users' interests. This means making decisions that avoid compromising user trust, such as introducing revenue streams that conflict with user trust principles.

AI's Role in Solving Real World Problems and Responsible Use

01:10

Investors and User Satisfaction at Grammarly

01:01

Making Clear and Informed Decisions in Discussions

01:21

The Origins and Evolution of the Chrome Dino Game

01:22

Introduction

3min

Exploring the Impact of Technology and Reflecting on Childhood in India

3min

Dinner table conversations, interests, and pursuit of liberal arts education

2min

Exploring the AI Landscape

16min

Building for Users and the Potential of AI

14min

Becoming the CEO and the Importance of Founders

16min

Falling in Love with Problems, not Solutions

7min

AI, Hiring, and the Power of 'Grit'

2min

Guest: Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, CEO of Grammarly

Driven by generative tools like ChatGPT, artificial intelligence is hot — but Grammarly CEO Rahul Roy-Chowdhury wishes that “AI” stood for something else: “Augmented Intelligence.” A longtime Googler and lifelong believer in using technology to make peoples’ lives better at scale, Roy-Chowdhury now leads a company well-positioned to do exactly that. “In the early days, Grammarly was all about the rules of language,” he says. “Now, with generative AI, we can actually help people across a much broader swath of communication tasks.”

In this episode, Rahul and Joubin discuss digital distraction, responsible AI, John Oliver, Ali Ghodsi, the hype cycle, fragmentation, being kind to yourself, Amp It Up, intentional strategy, candid dialogue, Google Chrome, and Dancing with the Butterfly.

In this episode, we cover:

Growing up in India (01:05)
Meaningful, impactful work (07:12)
The potential of AI (13:09)
Invisible AI (19:53)
Would Grammarly go public? (23:51)
What drives the business (28:19)
Too many emails (31:05)
Being an introvert CEO (35:11)
How Rahul got the top job (37:36)
Insecurity (39:48)
Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman (41:57)
Rahul’s decision-making framework (45:40)
“I deprecated the thing I built” (54:12)
The dino game (56:28)
The book on Rahul’s desk (59:49)
Who Grammarly is hiring and what “grit” means to Rahul (01:01:06)

Links:

Connect with Rahul
- LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

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