Amol Avasare05 April 2026

Head of Growth (Anthropic): “Claude is growing itself at this point”

8Frameworks

15Insights

Episode overview

Lenny Rachitsky interviews Anthropic head of growth Amol Avasare about the company’s rise from roughly $1 billion to more than $19 billion in annual recurring revenue over 14 months. Avasare explains why AI-native growth teams should favor larger product bets, how Anthropic’s CACHE initiative uses Claude to identify, build, test, and analyze experiments, and why human stakeholder management remains important. They also discuss activation through useful friction, changing PM-engineering ratios, Anthropic’s safety-first constraints, and the career lessons Avasare drew from a failed startup and a traumatic brain injury.

Key ideas

Anthropic’s rapid growth is primarily attributed to model quality, research, inference, compute, and product teams rather than growth tactics alone.
Growth work at Anthropic is roughly split between firefighting “success disasters” and proactive acquisition, activation, monetization, pricing, and product adoption.
Useful onboarding friction can improve conversion when it identifies the user and routes them toward relevant products, features, or content.
AI-first products should devote more capacity to large bets because exponentially improving model capabilities continually unlock much larger markets.
Anthropic’s CACHE initiative automates parts of the experimentation loop: opportunity identification, building, quality testing, shipping, and results analysis.
Engineering receives greater near-term leverage from AI than product or design, increasing pressure on PMs and favoring product-minded engineers who can lead smaller projects.
Avasare uses scheduled Claude Cowork tasks for metric monitoring, misalignment detection, managerial coaching, inbox cleanup, expenses, and other administrative work.
Anthropic is willing to leave short-term revenue on the table to protect safety, brand, product quality, and long-term user trust.

Transcript available · source text is retained privately and is not published

Frameworks in this episode

Strategy3 steps

Exponential Bet Allocation

If AI is your core value, shift the growth portfolio from micro-optimizations to large bets

Read →

Self-Mastery5 steps

Lean Into Your Spike

In the AI era, double down on your unfair advantage and stack disciplines to become a unicorn

Read →

Marketing4 steps

Strategic Friction

Add friction that helps a user understand why the product is for them; cut friction that doesn't

Read →

Innovation5 steps

The Automatable Growth Loop (CACHE)

Break growth experimentation into four evaluable stages an AI can hill-climb, keeping humans on alignment

Read →

Sales4 steps

The Conversion-Funnel Cold Email

Treat a cold email like a growth funnel: open, then read, then reply — optimize each stage separately

Read →

Productivity5 steps

The Scheduled AI Chief of Staff

Put proactive agents on a schedule to watch your metrics, surface misalignment, and coach you weekly

Read →

Strategy4 steps

The Two-Bucket Controversial-Test Triage

Sort every risky experiment into a red-line 'never run' bucket or a 'run it if the return justifies the cringe' bucket

Read →

Leadership5 steps

The Two-Week Deputization Rule

Under two engineering weeks, the engineer is the PM; over two weeks, the PM owns it

Read →

People & resources mentioned

Attributed to the moment in the episode. Timestamps are approximate.

People · 19

Amol AvasareMentionsAmol is head of growth at Anthropic
“Amol is head of growth at Anthropic, which is on the most unprecedented growth run in history.”
▶ Watch at ~1:30approx.
Mike KriegerMentionsMike is chief product officer at Anthropic the company behind Claude. He's also the co-founder of Instagram.
“I just sent Mike Krieger a cold email. He was the chief product officer.”
▶ Watch at ~4:30approx.
Dario AmodeiMentionsI was sitting next to Dario yesterday and he's like I keep making these predictions and people keep laughing at me
“Darius pushing the aggressive case scenario and people are freaking out being like how the hell are we going to hit that”
▶ Watch at ~9:30approx.
Ben MannMentionsSo, I talked to Ben Mann, co-founder of Anthropic.
“When I asked Ben Mann, one of the co-founders, former podcast guest what's ask you about”
▶ Watch at ~18:00approx.
Alexey KomissaroukMentionsteaches growth engineering at Reforge
“We have like Alexey Komissarouk teaches growth engineering at Reforge and he's just like the guy on the team.”
▶ Watch at ~34:00approx.
Lenny RachitskyMentionstoday we've got another very special compilation episode something I've been pulling on more and more with the podcast and the newsletter
“The one I didn't mention there, Lenny, is cross-functional stakeholder management.”
▶ Watch at ~37:00approx.
Ami VoraMentionslegendary longtime came in worked on on our development platform then worked with me on ads
“one of my manager, Army Arora, was I think a podcast guest of yours”
▶ Watch at ~1:02:30approx.
Dario AmodeiMentionsI was sitting next to Dario yesterday and he's like I keep making these predictions and people keep laughing at me
“I think a lot comes from Dario. I think a lot comes from from leadership and and just our DNA.”
▶ Watch at ~1:08:30approx.
Nick LinMentionshe came from investment banking, he came from private equity
“the guy running that, Nick Lin, like he came from investment banking, he came from private equity.”
▶ Watch at ~1:21:00approx.
Jenny WenMentionsJenny was head of design for Claude, is now leading design for Claude Co-work. Prior to that, she was director of design at Figma
“It matches a lot of what Jenny shared when she came on the podcast, the design design leader on Claude and Claude work”
▶ Watch at ~1:22:00approx.
Marc AndreessenMentionsMark Andre had this visual on some podcasts have just imagined a 100,000 drones just coming out of China just at us.
“Mark Andreessen said the same thing.”
▶ Watch at ~1:22:30approx.
Daniela AmodeiMentionsDanielle who's one of the the co-founders and the president at Enthropic.
“leadership has has really invested in this a lot and Daniela and Dario, they they really believe in this”
▶ Watch at ~1:23:00approx.
Mike KriegerMentionsMike is chief product officer at Anthropic the company behind Claude. He's also the co-founder of Instagram.
“We have Mike Krieger you're like okay casually started Instagram he's here”
▶ Watch at ~1:27:00approx.
Ami VoraMentionslegendary longtime came in worked on on our development platform then worked with me on ads
“on like product we have Amie Vora like she is phenomenal”
▶ Watch at ~1:27:00approx.
Jeff BleichMentionsthe US ambassador to my country Australia
“you are literally the US ambassador to my country Australia and you're just an employee here.”
▶ Watch at ~1:27:30approx.
Yongey Mingyur RinpocheCoinedBuddhist monk
“The first is a book called Joy of Lit Living by Buddhist monk named Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.”
▶ Watch at ~1:47:00approx.
Anthony de MelloCoinedmentioned
“another one is awareness by Anthony De Mello”
▶ Watch at ~1:47:30approx.
Annie DukeCoinedAnnie is the author of the bestselling book thinking in bets and also her more recent book quit
“Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke.”
▶ Watch at ~1:48:00approx.
Eros ResminiMentionsthe CMO of Discord who was a very close advisor to me as a founder
“this guy Eros Resmini who was the the CMO of Discord who was a very close advisor to me as a founder”
▶ Watch at ~1:50:00approx.

Resources · 48

OpenAIMentionscompany
“We didn't have the first-mover advantage of an OpenAI.”
▶ Watch at ~0:00approx.
ChatGPTMentionssoftware · OpenAI
“One of the cleverest growth moves you all made was this idea of importing memory from ChatGPT.”
▶ Watch at ~0:30approx.
AnthropicMentionscompany
“Amol is head of growth at Anthropic”
▶ Watch at ~1:30approx.
Lenny's NewsletterMentionsnewsletter · Lenny Rachitsky
“He shared this story in a guest post in my newsletter a number of years ago.”
▶ Watch at ~2:00approx.
Lenny's Product PassRecommendswebsite · Lenny Rachitsky
“don't forget to check out Lenny's Product Pass.com for an incredible set of deals available exclusively to Lenny's newsletter subscribers.”
▶ Watch at ~3:00approx.
ClaudeUsessoftware · Anthropic
“I was actually a user of Claude, and I was using a lot.”
▶ Watch at ~4:30approx.
WorkOSRecommendscompany · WorkOS, Inc.
“Visit workos.com to get started or just hit up their Slack where they have actual engineers waiting to answer your questions.”
▶ Watch at ~8:00approx.
AnthropicMentionscompany
“We as Anthropic are really a model company and an intelligence company first and and foremost.”
▶ Watch at ~8:30approx.
Claude CodeMentionssoftware · Anthropic
“We're very lucky to have products like Claude code and and co-work.”
▶ Watch at ~11:00approx.
Claude Opus 4Mentionssoftware · Anthropic
“back when we had, I don't know, say like Opus 4”
▶ Watch at ~16:30approx.
Claude Opus 4.5Mentionssoftware · Anthropic
“Opus 4.5 unlocked a whole bunch of new things.”
▶ Watch at ~16:30approx.
MercuryRecommendscompany · Mercury
“I'm a very happy customer just to put that out there. I love it. great product. Highly recommend it.”
▶ Watch at ~18:30approx.
MercuryMentionscompany · Mercury
“So worked on the growth team at Mercury. I think it's a fantastic product.”
▶ Watch at ~18:30approx.
MasterClassMentionscompany
“I look at the companies I've been at Masterclass.”
▶ Watch at ~21:30approx.
CalmMentionssoftware · Calm.com, Inc.
“One of the the growth PMs on our team left to to join Calm, calm.com the meditation app.”
▶ Watch at ~22:00approx.
Chrome extension for ClaudeUsessoftware · Anthropic
“by the way, the Chrome extension, I use it all the time. It's amazing.”
▶ Watch at ~25:00approx.
Chrome extension for ClaudeMentionssoftware · Anthropic
“the Chrome extension like that is now the thing that underpins a number of use cases on co-work”
▶ Watch at ~30:00approx.
LovableMentionssoftware · Lovable
“Companies like yeah, lovable, cursor, you know, all these like great businesses”
▶ Watch at ~31:30approx.
CursorMentionssoftware · Anysphere
“Companies like yeah, lovable, cursor, you know, all these like great businesses”
▶ Watch at ~31:30approx.
ReforgeMentionscompany · Brian Balfour
“Alexey Komissarouk teaches growth engineering at Reforge”
▶ Watch at ~34:00approx.
CACHEMentionsother · Anthropic growth platform team
“it's called cash, which is Claude accelerates sustainable hacker growth.”
▶ Watch at ~34:30approx.
Claude Opus 4.6Mentionssoftware · Anthropic
“more recently with Opus 4.6 we're like, okay, this this is like headed in the right direction.”
▶ Watch at ~34:30approx.
SlackUsessoftware · Slack Technologies
“For for very small changes you know, like how there's a thing coming, we need to have an upsell for it.”
▶ Watch at ~53:00approx.
VantaRecommendssoftware · Christina Cacioppo
“Learn more at vanta.com/lenny. And as a listener of this podcast, you get $1,000 off Vanta.”
▶ Watch at ~57:30approx.
HexUsessoftware · Hex Technologies
“I have a bunch of hex links that it will go and and look at.”
▶ Watch at ~59:30approx.
Claude CoworkUsessoftware · Anthropic
“for me it just shows it comes up in Cowork. So Cowork has a schedule.”
▶ Watch at ~59:30approx.
ClaudeUsessoftware · Anthropic
“Claude archives sort of my my email first pass at clearing up my inbox.”
▶ Watch at ~1:01:30approx.
BrexUsescompany
“Claude will go to Brex and file the reimbursements. He'll go to Brex and file the expenses.”
▶ Watch at ~1:01:30approx.
Slack MCPUsessoftware
“Using the Slack MCP, look at everything that this person has said in the last, you know, week”
▶ Watch at ~1:04:00approx.
GranolaMentionssoftware · Granola
“there's granola or whatever people use like all these notes from conversations and and discussions are really key to this working.”
▶ Watch at ~1:05:30approx.
Claude CoworkRecommendssoftware · Anthropic
“you go on to Cowork download the desktop app on Cowork.”
▶ Watch at ~1:06:00approx.
Claude CodeRecommendssoftware · Anthropic
“I think you need to be using Claude code.”
▶ Watch at ~1:18:00approx.
SlackUsessoftware · Slack Technologies
“We uh Slack is like a it's a it's a whole maze.”
▶ Watch at ~1:25:30approx.
InstagramCoinedsoftware · Meta
“We have Mike Krieger you're like okay casually started Instagram he's here”
▶ Watch at ~1:27:00approx.
WorkdayUsessoftware · Workday, Inc.
“we use Figma a ton, we use Slack a ton, we use Workday”
▶ Watch at ~1:31:00approx.
FigmaUsessoftware · Figma
“we use Figma a ton, we use Slack a ton, we use Workday”
▶ Watch at ~1:31:00approx.
Spirit Rock Meditation CenterUsesplace
“I think both you and I have done a retreat at Spirit Rock and doing a you know, meditation retreat changed my life”
▶ Watch at ~1:43:30approx.
The Joy of LivingRecommendsbook · Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
“The first is a book called Joy of Lit Living by Buddhist monk named Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.”
▶ Watch at ~1:47:00approx.
AwarenessRecommendsbook · Anthony de Mello
“another one is awareness by Anthony De Mello”
▶ Watch at ~1:47:30approx.
Olympic GamesMentionsevent
“TV show I have not watched TV in a while. I think it's probably the the Olympics”
▶ Watch at ~1:48:00approx.
Thinking in BetsRecommendsbook · Annie Duke
“the third one is more relevant to the product in many ways is Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke.”
▶ Watch at ~1:48:00approx.
Marty SupremeRecommendsfilm
“I think movie is probably Mardi Gras Supreme. It's one of the only ones I watched recently. I thought it was great.”
▶ Watch at ~1:48:00approx.
Maruhachi Pro PillowRecommendsproduct · Maruhachi
“it's called the Maruhachi Shinsui Maruhachi Pro Pillow and you can only get it in Japan”
▶ Watch at ~1:49:00approx.
DiscordMentionssoftware · Discord Inc.
“this guy Eros Resmini who was the the CMO of Discord”
▶ Watch at ~1:50:00approx.
The Big HouseMentionsplace
“My wife is from Michigan and and she took me to a game at the Big House and it just changed my life.”
▶ Watch at ~1:51:00approx.
Apple PodcastsRecommendssoftware · Apple Inc.
“you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app.”
▶ Watch at ~1:52:00approx.
SpotifyRecommendssoftware · Spotify
“you can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast app.”
▶ Watch at ~1:52:00approx.
Lenny's PodcastMentionspodcast · Lenny Rachitsky
“You can find all past episodes or learn more about the show at lennyspodcast.com.”
▶ Watch at ~1:52:30approx.

Spot an error or want something removed? Request a correction or removal.

Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Hot Take· 3

Hot Take26:00

Take Bigger Bets, Not Micro-Optimizations, If Your Value Is AI

Even at Anthropic's scale, where a 1% win is enormous, the growth team deliberately flips the usual ratio toward large swings (roughly 50/50 or 70/30 on big bets) rather than small optimizations. The reasoning is the exponential: a normal product might deliver 30-50% more value in two years, but an AI-first product's value could be 100x-1000x, so you must chase the large new markets. Amol qualifies this only applies if AI is the central element of your product's value.

At their scale a 1% win is massive, yet they still avoid indexing on micro-optimizations
Traditional growth: ~60-70% small/medium bets; Anthropic flips it toward large swings
Non-AI products may gain 30-50% value in two years; AI-first products can be 100x-1000x
Agentic coding is cited as a new market bigger than the prior AI coding market
The Chrome extension was a big, research-heavy bet the growth team backed because no one else was doing it
Caveat: operate this way only if AI is the core of your value, not a side feature

“at the scale you guys are at, uh like a 1% win is massive in the scheme of things.”
Lenny Rachitsky · 27:00

“the the the product value that we will deliver in two years time is probably like a thousand X a hundred to a thousand X…”
Amol Avasare · 29:30

#strategy#bets#exponential#ai-products

Hot Take43:00

PMs Are Squeezed. The Future May Need More PMs, Not Fewer

Amol argues engineers are getting the most leverage from AI tools like Claude Code (2-3x'ing a five-engineer team), while PM and design get squeezed, effectively managing a much larger group without a headcount change. Counter to the prevailing view that PMs should just prototype and ship PRs, he says with 20 engineers your leverage is in guiding the team on the right opportunities, and a great PM who improves the 'why' and 'what' by 5% is an extremely high-leverage hire.

Engineering gets the most AI leverage today; PM and design are getting squeezed
A five-engineer team can act like 15-20, straining ~1.5-2 PMs and designers
One answer really may be to hire a lot more PMs
With 20 engineers, shipping the 21st PM feature is lower leverage than guiding opportunities
A PM who lifts the why and what by 5% is a very high-leverage hire
Caveat: at small or budget-tight companies, the PM should still just ship

“across the board their feeling is where PM and design is just squeezed. It's just absolutely squeezed”
Amol Avasare · 44:00

“is it actually shipping like the 21st PM feature or is it saying how am I getting a little bit better at guiding the team…”
Amol Avasare · 49:00

#product-management#ai#careers#roles

Hot Take1:14:00

Be Comfortable Leaving Money on the Table

Amol says one of the biggest mistakes growth teams make is trying to squeeze every last dollar. A core principle for his team is being comfortable forgoing metric impact to prioritize safety, brand, quality, and user experience. He runs controversial tests through a two-bucket filter: a hard red line you'd never ship (don't run it), versus 'yikes but not a red line' (run it, but demand a high return). At Anthropic, AI safety sits firmly in bucket one.

Biggest growth mistake: trying to squeeze out every last dollar
Core principle: comfortable forgoing metric impact for safety, brand, quality, and UX
Two-bucket test filter: hard red line (don't run) vs 'yikes but not a red line' (run, demand high return)
For higher-cringe tests, require a correspondingly high return to justify
AI safety is bucket one for Anthropic; leaving money on the table drives more long-term growth
As stakes rise, a genuine safety stance becomes a significant competitive advantage

“one of the biggest mistakes I feel like I see growth teams make and particularly just like hardcore growth practitioners is is just trying to…”
Amol Avasare · 1:16:00

“leaving money on the table and that's a core principle for us as a growth team where we are very comfortable forgoing metric impact in…”
Amol Avasare · 1:16:30

#safety#growth#principles#brand

Explainer· 3

Explainer11:30

Why 70% of Leading Growth at Anthropic Is 'Success Disasters'

Amol says the categories of growth work (acquisition, activation, monetization) are the same as anywhere, but roughly 70% of his time goes to what Anthropic internally calls 'success disasters', where things have gone so well that other things break. The remaining 30% is proactive bread-and-butter growth. All the charts are green and up-and-to-the-right, yet it can still be emotionally brutal firefighting.

Same growth categories as a normal company: acquisition, activation, monetization
~70% of his time is firefighting 'success disasters' from hypergrowth breakage
Companies like Facebook, Uber and DoorDash understand this viscerally
~30% is proactive work: which products to fund, long-term pricing and packaging
Charts all green can still be emotionally tough; you must step back and realize these are lucky problems

“roughly 70% of what I I spend my time on is is what we internally refer to as success disasters”
Amol Avasare · 12:00

“all the charts are like green, like fully up into the right”
Amol Avasare · 12:30

#growth#scaling#hypergrowth#operations

Explainer15:00

Capability Overhead: Why Activation Is So Hard in AI

Amol argues one of the industry's biggest problems is 'capability overhead', where models improve so fast the product side can't diffuse the benefits to users quickly enough. By the time you run tests and ship a new onboarding flow for one model's capabilities, the next model has made those learnings irrelevant. If users' instinct is to ask 'what's the weather in SF', they never get the model's real value.

Capability overhead: models improve faster than products can teach users what's possible
Early activation (day zero/day one) is one of the highest levers for long-term retention
A test-and-ship onboarding cycle can be obsoleted by the next model release
Even internally, people must carve out time to learn what a new model can do and update their priors
A powerful model is wasted if users only ask it trivial questions

“one of the biggest problems in the industry is capability overhead, where the models are just getting better so quickly.”
Amol Avasare · 15:30

“if if people's instinct is to come there and be like, "Hey, what's the weather in SF?" then, you know, you they're not going to…”
Amol Avasare · 16:00

#activation#ai-products#models#onboarding

Explainer33:30

CACHE: Using Claude to Automate Growth Experimentation

Anthropic's growth platform team, led by Reforge growth-engineering instructor Alexey Komissarouk, runs an effort internally nicknamed CACHE (Claude Accelerates Sustainable Hacker growth) to automate the growth loop. They eval and hill-climb Claude on four stages (identifying opportunities, building, testing to a quality/brand bar, and analyzing results) with a human in the loop. On copy and minor UI tweaks it 'prints money' at roughly a junior-PM win rate, not yet senior level, but improving fast.

Effort nicknamed CACHE: Claude Accelerates Sustainable Hacker growth
Wasn't really possible before Opus 4.5; Opus 4.6 moved it in the right direction
Four gradable stages: identify opportunities, build, test to quality/brand bar, analyze results
Currently small-scale: copy changes and minor UI tweaks, with human-in-the-loop approval
Win rate is around a junior PM (2-3 years in), not yet senior-PM level
Cross-functional stakeholder management is the one piece still needing human brains

“it's called cash, which is Claude accelerates sustainable hacker growth.”
Amol Avasare · 34:30

“I would say this is like the the win rate that I would expect from from like a junior PM.”
Amol Avasare · 36:30

#automation#growth#claude#experimentation

Story· 4

Story00:00

Anthropic's 1 to 19 Billion ARR Run in 14 Months

Amol walks through Anthropic's growth trajectory: roughly 1B ARR at the start of 2025, ~4B mid-2025, ~9B at year-end, and 19B by end of February 2026. He frames the company as the smallest and least well-funded player that had no first-mover advantage, and stresses the 10x year-over-year revenue trend has held since 2023.

1B to 19B ARR in 14 months; the 19B figure is already out of date (end of Feb)
10x year-on-year revenue has held: 2023 was 0 to 100M, 2024 was 100M to 1B, 2025 was 1B to ~10B
For comparison, Atlassian, Palantir and Snowflake do ~4.5-6B ARR after 15-20 years
Anthropic lacked the cash and distribution of Meta/Google and OpenAI's first-mover advantage

“That's 1 to 19 billion dollars in 14 months.”
Lenny Rachitsky · 00:00

“It's a complete miracle that we've gotten to the stage that we have.”
Amol Avasare · 00:00

#anthropic#growth#arr#startups

Story04:00

How a Cold Email to Mike Krieger Landed the Head of Growth Job

Amol never came through referrals, applications, or sourcing. He was a heavy Claude user who noticed Anthropic obviously had no growth team, so he cold emailed CPO Mike Krieger pitching that they needed one. Krieger, who happened to be just starting to think about hiring for growth, responded and later said Amol is the only PM he has ever hired from a cold email.

During onboarding he learned he came through none of the standard hiring channels
He was a Claude power user and inferred they had no growth team
He emailed Mike Krieger saying they badly needed a growth team and wanted to chat
There were no growth roles listed, but the timing coincided with them starting to think about it
Krieger said Amol is the only PM he has hired from a cold email

“And uh what I did was I just sent Mike Krieger a cold email.”
Amol Avasare · 04:30

“He said I'm the only PM that he's hired from from cold email.”
Amol Avasare · 05:00

#cold-email#hiring#career#anthropic

Story13:30

The ChatGPT Memory Import Feature and the Cold Start Problem

One of Anthropic's cleverest recent growth moves was making it easy to import your memory from ChatGPT, riding a wave of excitement. Amol frames it as a specific, moment-in-time solution to a broader and hard problem: the cold start and new-user experience, so Claude can quickly understand who you are and get you to the right place.

The feature let users import their memory from ChatGPT easily
It was a specific answer to the cold-start and new-user-experience problem
Activation is described as a really big challenge in AI
Goal: help new sign-ups get Claude to understand who they are and where they should go

“One of the cleverest growth uh moves you all made recently was this idea of importing memory from chat GPT,”
Lenny Rachitsky · 13:30

“We were always thinking about what can we do to improve the the cold start problem and improve the new user experience.”
Amol Avasare · 14:00

#activation#onboarding#product#cold-start

Story1:39:30

The Brain Injury That Reshaped His Career and Mindset

In early 2022, a kick to the head during a normal Muay Thai sparring session gave Amol a traumatic brain injury. He was off work nine months, took about half a year to walk comfortably again, couldn't look at screens, and felt nauseous after 20 seconds of music. He was later reinjured a month into Mercury and still isn't 100% healed. Yet he calls it one of the best things that happened to him, crediting forced constraints, mandatory breaks, meditation, and no alcohol or caffeine.

Early 2022: a kick to the head in routine Muay Thai sparring caused a traumatic brain injury
Off work nine months; ~half a year to walk comfortably; couldn't look at screens; nausea after ~20 seconds of music
Recovery is slow, deliberate exposure; pushing too far causes big setbacks
He was reinjured about a month into joining Mercury and is still not fully healed
He calls it one of the best things that happened to him ('freedom through constraints')
Coping habits: mandatory daily breaks, meditation retreats at least yearly, no alcohol or caffeine

“The first couple of months were brutal. It took me roughly half a year till I was comfortable walking again.”
Amol Avasare · 1:40:30

“Overall I feel like it's one of the best things that could have happened to me.”
Amol Avasare · 1:42:30

#resilience#health#mindset#career

Tool· 1

Tool55:30

How Amol Uses Claude: Misalignment Detection, Coaching, and Life Admin

Amol shares his personal Claude/co-work stack. A scheduled weekly job uses the Slack MCP to scan for areas of potential misalignment across his projects. A morning co-work task reviews 20-25 charts and surfaces what to pay attention to. He also offloads life admin (booking meeting rooms, inbox clearing, filing Brex reimbursements) and runs manager-lens coaching prompts modeled on people like Ami Vora.

Weekly scheduled job scans Slack via MCP for potential misalignment and does a really good job
A co-work task reviews 20-25 charts each morning and flags what's concerning or interesting
He offloads life admin: booking meeting rooms, first-pass inbox clearing, filing Brex expenses
Manager-lens prompts review direct reports' week against goals and suggest feedback (quality is hit or miss)
He simulates feedback from his own manager by modeling her public writing and internal context
Setup is simple: download the co-work desktop app, connect the Slack MCP, then just ask Claude

“go and find me areas of potential misalignment right now. And it does a really, really good job.”
Amol Avasare · 56:30

“I I don't do any of my reimbursements and and expenses. Claude will go to Brex and file the reimbursements.”
Amol Avasare · 1:01:30

#claude#co-work#automation#productivity

Takeaway· 4

Takeaway05:30

The Cold Email Playbook: Open Rate, Channel, Brevity, Follow-Up

Amol, a former founder who honed cold email over years, breaks down what makes one convert. The subject line is a tested high-open-rate copy (which he keeps secret). Reach people where they aren't already flooded with outreach, keep the body very short (who you are, why you fit, let's chat), and follow up relentlessly until they tell you to stop.

Subject line is optimized for open rate first, since they must click before anything else
Avoid saturated channels like LinkedIn and work email; find a personal email instead
Keep the message short: who I am, why I'd be a good fit, we should chat
Follow up multiple times; if you really care, keep going until they say stop
A good cold email is almost an interview step: did the reader want to read it?

“I have a copy that I've tested that is like very, very high open rate.”
Amol Avasare · 06:00

“my rule of thumb is like if I really care about it, I should just keep keep reaching out to them and until they tell…”
Amol Avasare · 06:30

#cold-email#outreach#conversion#tactics

Takeaway18:30

Quality Drives Growth: The Mercury Onboarding Quarter

At Mercury, Amol's growth team spent an entire quarter ignoring metrics to fix quality in the complex, regulated banking onboarding flow. It became the single most impactful quarter he had ever had, driving a significant uplift in start-to-completion. The broader lesson (quality drives growth) plus a philosophy on friction: cut annoying friction that adds no value, but don't shy away from the right friction that helps users understand the product is for them.

They said 'forget metrics' and spent a full quarter fixing onboarding quality
Banking onboarding is extremely complex (registered agent vs legal vs physical address, beneficial ownership)
Result: a significant uplift in onboarding-to-completion from quality alone
Core lesson: quality drives growth
Friction philosophy: cut friction that adds no value, but keep friction that helps users see the product is for them
Adding the right steps and questions consistently raises conversion; test it for your business

“we said, "Forget metrics, forget growth, forget everything else."”
Amol Avasare · 19:30

“a broader learning around quality drives growth that I think I I've tried to to to bring to Anthropic.”
Amol Avasare · 20:30

#onboarding#friction#conversion#mercury

Takeaway44:30

The Two-Week Rule: Deputizing Engineers as Mini-PMs

Because the team is stretched, Anthropic's growth org formalizes a rule: if a project is two weeks of engineering time or less, the engineer is on the hook to be the PM (talking to security, legal, cross-functional stakeholders), with the PM only advising. Beyond two weeks, the PM stays squarely accountable. Product-minded engineers become unicorns whose value jumps an order of magnitude.

Projects two weeks or less: the engineer acts as the PM and drives stakeholders
Over two weeks: the PM is squarely accountable and delegates to engineering
It's not clean-cut; a short but controversial project should still have PM drive
They deliberately hire product-minded engineers who can step in as mini-PMs
Product-minded engineers' value goes up roughly an order of magnitude

“if a project is less than is two weeks of engineering time or less, then the the engineer is on the hook to effectively be…”
Amol Avasare · 45:30

“the the the engineers who are more product-minded, suddenly their value goes up significantly, like like an order of magnitude.”
Amol Avasare · 46:30

#product-management#engineering#org-design#roles

Takeaway1:06:30

Why Anthropic Bet So Deep on Coding: The Research Feedback Loop

Amol says a founder (Dan) wrote a doc dated 2021, months after Anthropic started, arguing they should just focus on AI coding, long before the market was obvious. The bet wasn't only about a huge TAM: the best coding models accelerate research, which accelerates the research loop and better models, compounding faster. Focus came from leadership and DNA, and also from necessity as the smallest, least-funded player.

A 2021 founder doc argued for focusing on AI coding years before the market was clear
Coding is a feedback loop: best models accelerate research, which accelerates better models
Focus on coding and B2B came from leadership (especially Dario) and company DNA
Being the smallest, least-funded player forced a narrow focus to reach escape velocity
Anthropic had a chatbot before ChatGPT but chose not to launch it for safety reasons

“here's why we should just focus on AI coding.”
Amol Avasare · 1:07:30

“if you have the best models that's going to accelerate your research as and that's going to accelerate the research loop”
Amol Avasare · 1:08:30

#strategy#focus#coding#anthropic

Key ideas

Frameworks in this episode

Exponential Bet Allocation

Lean Into Your Spike

Strategic Friction

The Automatable Growth Loop (CACHE)

The Conversion-Funnel Cold Email

The Scheduled AI Chief of Staff

The Two-Bucket Controversial-Test Triage

The Two-Week Deputization Rule

People & resources mentioned

People · 19

Resources · 48

Insights & moments

◆Hot Take· 3

Take Bigger Bets, Not Micro-Optimizations, If Your Value Is AI

PMs Are Squeezed. The Future May Need More PMs, Not Fewer

Be Comfortable Leaving Money on the Table

✶Explainer· 3

Why 70% of Leading Growth at Anthropic Is 'Success Disasters'

Capability Overhead: Why Activation Is So Hard in AI

CACHE: Using Claude to Automate Growth Experimentation

❝Story· 4

Anthropic's 1 to 19 Billion ARR Run in 14 Months

How a Cold Email to Mike Krieger Landed the Head of Growth Job

The ChatGPT Memory Import Feature and the Cold Start Problem

The Brain Injury That Reshaped His Career and Mindset

✦Tool· 1

How Amol Uses Claude: Misalignment Detection, Coaching, and Life Admin

▲Takeaway· 4

The Cold Email Playbook: Open Rate, Channel, Brevity, Follow-Up

Quality Drives Growth: The Mercury Onboarding Quarter

The Two-Week Rule: Deputizing Engineers as Mini-PMs

Why Anthropic Bet So Deep on Coding: The Research Feedback Loop

Hot Take· 3

Explainer· 3

Story· 4

Tool· 1

Takeaway· 4