Zach spent 8 years at Google leading engineering for Google Docs, then left to build a photo sharing app with zero go-to-market plan.

Reality hit hard: "At Google, anything you launch gets millions of users. At a startup, the challenge isn't building—it's getting anyone to care." After writing a brutal postmortem documenting everything that went wrong, he started Warp with strict principles: only hire product-obsessed people, document every process, build pure software not services.

For three years, Warp had hundreds of thousands of free users but no revenue. Then they pivoted to AI-powered development in 2024. Here's how they went from taking 300 days to hit their $1M to now adding $1M ARR every 10 days.

Why You Should Listen:

Why working at Google can set you up to fail as a founder
How to know when to quit your own startup
Why you should write down every operating principle before starting
The shift he made to grow insanely fast
Why competing directly with fast-growing startups is actually smart

Keywords:

startup podcast, startup podcast for founders, Warp, Zach Lloyd, Google alumni, developer tools, AI coding, product-market fit, startup pivot, Series B

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:48 From law school to Google via Craigslist

00:05:01 Why Google makes you a terrible startup founder

00:10:36 Joining SelfMade as technical co-founder

00:19:00 Writing a brutal post-mortem of the startup experience

00:27:15 Building Warp and getting 10,000 signups day one

00:38:08 Raising $50M Series B with zero revenue

00:41:50 Pivoting to Agent Mode and AI development

00:46:27 From 300 days to $1M to adding $1M every 10 days

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