Grit21 Apr 2025

No Reset Button: Reinventing Amplitude in a Post-AI World (Spenser Skates)

Amplitude helped define the modern analytics stack, powering digital products with deep behavioral insights. But in a world shifting toward agentic interfaces and vertically integrated AI, even a category leader has to evolve.

In this episode, CEO Spenser Skates shares how he’s rethinking AI within the constraints of a 13-year-old codebase, why analytics remains Amplitude’s competitive edge—and why taking the company public early was a risk worth taking.

Chapters:
00:00 Trailer
00:43 Introduction
01:26 AI is still very early
05:48 The urgency of building from the ground up
08:49 Bringing in new blood
11:23 Higher valuations and going public
15:00 Who’s leading who
18:39 Markets being open and closed
21:14 Being the incumbent in AI
24:40 Slow innovation
31:43 The ultimate founder
37:06 Things willing to relinquish
44:04 Being the person I want to be
46:41 Between family and work
50:08 Becoming the person you hate
55:16 Chief general, chief justice, chief priest
1:02:56 Tired founders
1:04:32 Missing out
1:14:51 Who Amplitude is hiring
1:15:41 What Spenser means to Spenser
1:16:54 Outro

Mentioned in this episode: OpenAI ChatGPT, Command AI, Oracle Corporation, Anthropic Claude, Jeff Bezos, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Rippling, Stripe, Meta Platforms, Inc., Mark Zuckerberg, Figma, Canva, Peter Thiel, Anne Lee Skates, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Michael Jordan

Links:

Connect with Spenser

Connect with Joubin

Learn more about Kleiner Perkins

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