Does your startup have a case of the 'Claude Spookies'?
With Anthropic and OpenAI releasing tools focused on verticals like design and law, @mutinycorp CEO Jaleh Rezaei (@jalehr) gets the concern. She's come out the other side.
"We are all going to snap back to common sense soon enough, but we're just in this interesting point in the market where the shift hasn't happened," she says
Should smart people obsessed with one customer set be able to build better tools on top of AI models than just the models themselves?
"I think that answer is f*** yes."
Catch the full interview on The Upstarts Podcast, presented by @Rippling.
Salespeople have a problem: they only spend 21% of their time actually selling to customers 🤝
@mutinycorp CEO Jaleh Rezaei (@jalehr) thought she'd found a way to fix it. She worked with customers like Snowflake and Uber. Revenue reached 8-figures 📈
Which makes what happened next all the more shocking: she burned it all down 🔥
On The Upstarts Podcast, Jaleh shares why she took the tough decision to fire her customers, slash headcount and re-found her startup around an AI agent.
We go into AI's disruption of SaaS; her favorite advice from @fin's @destraynor on pivoting and from @ycombinator's @garrytan on showing the chart you don't want people to see; how to get over "Claude Spookies," and why speed is (mostly) all you need.
This season of the show is presented by @Rippling 🫡
CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction 2:41 An AI agent for sales 7:04 Why an AI ‘blank canvas’ doesn’t work 10:38 Jaleh’s founder journey and Gusto lessons 17:01 Mutiny’s early software success 22:51 Jaleh’s Upstart Moment: tearing it down 24:42 Why you can’t rebuild a business halfway 27:15 Intercom’s founders share valuable advice 30:44 Focus on the business, not the optics 34:53 ‘Speed is the only thing that matters’ 37:40 ‘Claude spookies’ in the AI app layer 43:59 Second-time founder advantage
Thanks for watching!
