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.”
“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…”