#217 CEO & Co-Founder Codeium, Varun Mohan w/ Leigh Marie Braswell: Limitless
Grit18 Marras 2024

#217 CEO & Co-Founder Codeium, Varun Mohan w/ Leigh Marie Braswell: Limitless

Guests: Varun Mohan, CEO & Co-Founder of Codeium; and Leigh Marie Braswell, partner at Kleiner Perkins

“A lot of people are really bad at knowing what good is,” says Codeium CEO Varun Mohan. Specifically, he’s thinking of startups that hire based on a “logo” — a well-known company on the résumé — rather than exceptional talent. Codeium is based in Mountain View, CA, and Varun believes that it’s incumbent on any new startup to hire in the San Francisco Bay Area, because of how exceptional talent is concentrated there.

“When you hire someone that’s 10x better,” he says, “you can’t replace them with 10 1x people. Because the the 10x person is going to be thinking of ideas that none of these 1x people are ever going to think of.”


Chapters:

  • (01:05) - Ludicrous growth
  • (03:54) - Seizing opportunity
  • (07:29) - Product-market fit
  • (13:05) - Scale AI & MIT
  • (17:42) - Coding efficiency
  • (22:58) - Larger companies
  • (25:20) - Varun and Leigh Marie’s working relationship
  • (29:51) - Pivoting to Codeium
  • (34:00) - Giving away the product
  • (37:01) - The code-gen landscape
  • (42:20) - Annual reinvention
  • (45:00) - Picking a problem
  • (47:07) - Bipul Sinha’s help
  • (50:43) - Ambition
  • (53:13) - Building in Silicon Valley
  • (55:11) - Spotting talent
  • (59:11) - Who Codeium is hiring
  • (59:43) - What “grit” means to Varun


Mentioned in this episode: Graham Moreno, Wiz, ChatGPT, Google, Nuro, Goldman Sachs, Waymo, the DARPA Challenge, Alex Wang, Douglas Chen, Safeway, Equinox, Carlos Delatorre and MongoDB, The Qualified Sales Leader by John McMahon, GitHub Copilot, Microsoft, Exafunction, Mamoon Hamid, Figma, JPMorgan Chase, Starlink, SpaceX, Rubrik, Michael Dell, Stripe, and John Doerr.


Links:

Connect with Varun

Connect with Leigh Marie

Connect with Joubin


Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm

Jaksot(281)

How Sierra Is Pulling Ahead in the AI Race | Co-founder Bret Taylor

How Sierra Is Pulling Ahead in the AI Race | Co-founder Bret Taylor

Few founders have seen Silicon Valley from every seat at the table.After co-creating Google Maps at Google, serving as CTO at Facebook, and later as co-CEO of Salesforce, Bret Taylor is now building A...

9 Maalis 1h 12min

The AI Era of Cybercrime: How Malwarebytes Is Evolving Its Security Stack | Marcin Kleczynski

The AI Era of Cybercrime: How Malwarebytes Is Evolving Its Security Stack | Marcin Kleczynski

What began as a 14 year old fixing infected computers became Malwarebytes, an 800 person cybersecurity company trusted by millions of customers.On Grit, Marcin Kleczynski joins Joubin Mirzadegan to ex...

23 Helmi 1h 3min

The Truth Behind Automation Claims in Customer Support | Cresta CEO Ping Wu

The Truth Behind Automation Claims in Customer Support | Cresta CEO Ping Wu

Can you scale customer support without burning out agents or frustrating customers?Ping Wu shares how Cresta combines AI and human intelligence into a single system that scales sustainably for compani...

9 Helmi 43min

The Safest Dollar on the Internet | Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire

The Safest Dollar on the Internet | Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire

USDC closed the gap between software and law in modern finance.On Grit, Jeremy Allaire discusses how fully reserved, dollar backed digital currency became part of the financial system after more than ...

26 Tammi 1h 5min

Why We’re Only Using 1% of AI | Glean CEO Arvind Jain

Why We’re Only Using 1% of AI | Glean CEO Arvind Jain

Glean has grown into a $7.2B company by giving employees AI assistants and agents that extend their capabilities.CEO Arvind Jain is back on Grit alongside Joubin Mirzadegan. Here’s what stood out:“My ...

12 Tammi 58min

The Grittiest Conversations of 2025: AI, Business & Beyond

The Grittiest Conversations of 2025: AI, Business & Beyond

In this recap episode, we highlight the best moments from our 2025 interviews and reflect on the ideas that defined the year.Featuring:David Rubenstein (co-founder of Carlyle) Yamini Rangan (CEO of Hu...

29 Joulu 202541min

How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader

How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader

What happens when AI becomes your most influential referrer?As consumers turn to ChatGPT for answers, James Cadwallader and his team at Profound help brands like Eight Sleep and MongoDB gain visibilit...

22 Joulu 202550min

How Snap Plans to Win the AR Race | Evan Spiegel on Spectacles

How Snap Plans to Win the AR Race | Evan Spiegel on Spectacles

Turning down a $3B offer from Facebook is a bold move for any young CEO.Evan Spiegel shares how Snap’s early dream was to stay independent and give its community an authentic voice, a bet that proved ...

15 Joulu 20251h 11min

Suosittua kategoriassa Liike-elämä ja talous

sijotuskasti
mimmit-sijoittaa
rss-rahapodi
psykopodiaa-podcast
rss-rahamania
rss-seuraava-potilas
pomojen-suusta
taloudellinen-mielenrauha
ostan-asuntoja-podcast
rss-lahtijat
rss-20-30-40-podcast
rahapuhetta
rss-sisalto-kuntoon
herrasmieshakkerit
rss-bisnesta-bebeja
rss-karon-grilli
rss-draivi
juristipodi
rss-inspiroivat-naiset
rss-siksi-viestinta