The Peel with Turner Novak

• Why AI Coding Will Never be 100% Autonomous, How Engineering Teams Are Actually Adopting AI, Inside the 996 Discourse, How to do Creative Marketing | Daksh Gupta, Co-founder and CEO of Greptile

  Daksh Gupta is the Co-founder and CEO of Greptile, the AI code reviewer that understands your entire code base.Greptile just closed a $25M Series A led by Eric Vishria at Benchmark, and we get into their long and winding journey to build one of the fastest growing AI companies.Thanks to Suds at SF1 for helping brainstorm topics for the conversation.Thank you to Numeral and Hanover Park for sponsoring this episode.Numeral: The end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance. Try it here: https://bit.ly/NumeralThePeelHanover Park: Modern, AI-native fund admin at https://www.hanoverpark.com/TurnerTimestamps:(3:15) Evolution of AI coding + code review(11:23) Coding will never be fully automated(18:07) Why you need a separate code reviewer(24:34) How eng teams adopting AI is changing(27:37) Why LLM costs will come down(31:54) Pricing AI products(35:27) Getting your team to adopt AI(38:17) How Daksh started the 996 discourse(42:10) Recruiting is a funnel, open roles are a product(49:19) Making an energy drink for programmers(51:19) Brainstorming marketing stunts(57:22) Don’t do hype marketing too early(59:41) Starting a band, hitting #14 on Spotify(1:06:35) Evolution of the startup meta(1:12:39) Starting Greptile in class at Georgia Tech(1:19:18) Moving to SF, getting into YC(1:23:44) Pivoting from codebase chat to code review(1:27:09) Crazy growth and mimetic desire(1:29:47) Pricing AI software(1:34:44) How to market developer tools(1:39:46) Greptile's fundraising journey(1:42:57) Why YC is worth the 7% dilution(1:46:39) Treat fundraising like datingReferencedGreptile: https://www.greptile.com/Careers at Greptile: https://www.greptile.com/careersMonetizing Innovation: https://www.amazon.com/Monetizing-Innovation-Companies-Design-Product/dp/1119240867Greptile Work Culture: https://www.greptile.com/blog/work-cultureEpisode with Adit @ Reducto: https://youtu.be/h98dLRJFHMMFollow DakshTwitter: https://x.com/dakshgupLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dakshg/Follow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

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• From Pivot to Fortune 10 Customers, Lessons in Founder-Led Sales | Adit Abraham, Co-founder and CEO of Reducto

  Sign-up here to get weekly episodes + transcripts in your inbox: https://www.thespl.it/Adit Abraham is the Co-founder and CEO of Reducto. Reducto’s product takes PDFs and physical documents, and extracts all the data, just like a human would if they were reading it.At the time of recording, they’ve processed over 1 billion pages, grew 6x over the past five months, and are fresh off a $75 million Series B led by a16z. And Adit told me they’ve only burned $1 million of capital so far to get here.And the craziest part, Adit told me they’ve only burned $1 million of capital so far to get here.Anyone building an AI product probably sees Reducto as essential infrastructure. Our conversation gets into how they built the best product in the space, landing a Fortune 10 customer as a two-person startup, getting to $1 million in ARR within a few months, lessons doing founder led sales to over $5 million in ARR, and what the future of PDF’s, and human / computer data looks like.Thank you to Liz Wessel at First Round, Chetan Puttagunta at Benchmark, and Adel Wu at Reducto for helping brainstorm topics for Adit.Thank you to Numeral and Hanover Park for sponsoring this episode.Numeral: The end-to-end platform for sales tax and compliance. Try it here: https://bit.ly/NumeralThePeelHanover Park: Modern, AI-native fund admin at https://www.hanoverpark.com/TurnerTimestamps:(3:35) Reading unstructured human data(10:44) Growing 5x in four moths(12:38) Insurance, healthcare, legal, logistics(19:13) Where LLM’s still struggle(28:23) Starting Reducto from a blog post during YC(32:01) Landing a Fortune 10 customer with two people(35:48) Limiting the product and growth early on(40:57) Getting an MIT professor fired(43:50) How to avoid pivot hell(49:00) $108M from First Round, Benchmark, a16z(51:48) Chetan convincing them to raise a Series A(55:50) Raising a Series B in 48 hours(59:36) Redeye flight to hire the 1st AI researcher(1:05:42) Lessons hitting $5m ARR with founder-led sales(1:13:09) Staying on top of changes in AI modelsReferenced:https://reducto.aihttps://reducto.ai/careersFollow AditTwitter: https://x.com/aditabrmLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditabrahamFollow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSign-up here to get weekly episodes + transcripts in your inbox: https://www.thespl.it/

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• Building AI-Native Infrastructure for Developers | Erik Berhnardsson, CEO of Modal

  Erik Bernhardsson is the Co-founder and CEO of Modal, building high-performance AI infrastructure.We talk about building what is essentially a new cloud provider, created from the ground up, optimized for AI. We also talk about what actually happened with the great GPU shortage, how Modal fixes the inference problem in AI, and why he thinks AI will lead to 10x more developers.He also shares lessons on culture from joining Spotify as the 40th employee, treating hiring like a prediction problem, what most people get wrong working with early customers, why more people should start companies in their 30’s and 40’s, and reflections on fundraising in a hot market.Thank you to Tim Chen at Essence Venture Capital and Erik’s Co-founder Akshat for their help brainstorming topics for this conversation.Thank you to Meow and Hanover Park for supporting this episode.Meow: Get free bookkeeping for your startup at https://www.meow.comHanover Park: Modern, AI-native fund admin at https://www.hanoverpark.com/TurnerTimestamps:(4:26) Modal: AI-native infrastructure(9:02) Why its so hard to get GPU’s(15:00) Hitting PMF with AI generated media(20:37) Competing in IOI competitions(23:09) 40th employee at Spotify(27:17) Lessons from Spotify(31:17) Starting Better[dot]com(34:05) Treating hiring like a prediction problem(36:12) Erik’s favorite interview question(39:07) Sales + common design partner mistakes(42:02) Startups should solve hard problems(44:05) Evolution of Modal’s product over time(50:15) Rise in importance of inference in AI(52:07) AI development post-GPU scarcity(58:51) Building a brand in dev tools(1:04:31) Fundraising from Seed to Series B(1:07:42) More 30+ year old’s should start companies(1:10:00) Reducing developer tax, increasing productivity(1:20:37) Why Erik’s bullish and bearish on AI(1:26:17) Bubbles, downsides to inappropriate valuations(1:34:58) High CO2 levels make you dumb(1:37:38) Difference between US and European startupsReferencedModal: https://modal.comCareers at Modal: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/modalSuno: https://suno.comPlanet Scale: https://planetscale.comHow to hire smarter than the market: https://erikbern.com/2020/01/13/how-to-hire-smarter-than-the-market-a-toy-modelInterviewing is a noisy prediction problem: https://erikbern.com/2018/05/02/interviewing-is-a-noisy-prediction-problemCloud in 2030: https://erikbern.com/2021/11/30/storm-in-the-stratosphere-how-the-cloud-will-be-reshuffledFollow ErikTwitter: https://x.com/bernhardssonLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikbernFollow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

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• Howie: The AI Secretary | Austin Petersmith, Co-founder and CEO

  Austin Petersmith is the Co-founder and CEO of Howie, the AI secretary.We talk about why AI assistants are so hard to build, why they decided to build Howie super narrow, and everything that went into their brand, name, and viral launch.Thank you to Adam D’Augelli, Sophia Amoruso and Alex Cohen for help brainstorming topics for the conversation.Thank you to Hanover Park for supporting this episode. Try the modern, AI-native fund admin at https://www.hanoverpark.com/TurnerTimestamps:(3:35) Howie: The AI Secretary(6:08) Why AI assistants are so hard to build(16:19) Why Howie started in email(20:49) Adding a human in the loop(30:48) AI software vs AI-powered humans(36:21) How a meme inspired Howie(39:29) Inside the making of Howie’s launch video(44:15) Howie’s viral launch video + Discussion(53:47) Designing the brand(1:01:37) Long-term opportunity and roadmap(1:07:53) Working for Jason Calacanis(1:12:00) Jason's media lessons(1:16:51) Getting Howie's first users(1:19:35) Pitch deck strategy that raised $6m(1:24:09) The mistake of optimizing for growth too soon(1:29:48) Building an AI company outside of SF(1:33:13) Being Superhuman’s 1st customer, Mercury’s 3rdReferencedTry Howie: https://howie.com/Jobs at Howie: https://app.dover.com/jobs/howieHowie Dewitt Meme: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/howie-dewittNewKid: https://newkid.services/Follow AustinTwitter: https://x.com/awwstnLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awwstnFollow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

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• How Loops Fixes Email for Developers with Co-founder and CEO Chris Frantz

  Chris Frantz is the Co-founder and CEO of Loops, the email platform for software companies.We get into why sending emails is still a big problem, his hilariously simple framework for building products, getting in to YC with a last minute application, and why they skipped raising a Series A.We also talk through Chris decade of working in marketing, like when to lean into PLG vs Sales vs hype led growth, early stunts they did to get their first users, why they do no marketing now, and why Loops’ customer support team is all engineers.Thanks to Ramp for supporting this episode. It's the corporate card and expense management platform used by over 40,000 companies, like Shopify, CBRE and Stripe. Time is money. Save both with Ramp. Get $250 for signing-up here: https://ramp.com/ThePeelTry Hanover Park - the modern, AI-native fund admin https://www.hanoverpark.com/TurnerTimestamps:(4:37) Email for software companies(8:28) Why email is a big deal(14:05) The future of email(17:00) Product vs Sales vs Hype led growth(24:33) Coming up with the idea for Loops(29:36) Building one of the first GPT wrappers in 2020(34:34) Lessons selling his first company(37:13) Doing their YC app in 10 minutes(40:53) Avoiding VC’s who add value(46:58) Skipping a Series A(51:37) Building in stealth for 18 months(53:21) Marketing stunts to get the first waitlist sign-ups(58:44) Four step cadence of building Loops(1:01:58) Personally onboarding every new customer(1:04:03) Balancing 996 with family(1:11:11) Cleaning wasp nests with a shop vacReferencedLoops: https://loops.soCareers at Loops: https://loops.so/careersCuriosity: https://curiositystream.comSnazzy AI / Unbounce: https://unbounce.com/product/smart-copyAtlas customer support: https://atlas.soFollow ChrisTwitter: https://x.com/frantzfriesLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ctfrantzFollow TurnerTwitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovakLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovakSubscribe to my newsletter to get every episode + the transcript in your inbox every week: https://www.thespl.it/

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