Founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, Qasar Younis: Creating Customer-Oriented Company Cultures

When it comes to building a company from the ground up, Qasar Younis has done it all.

A mechanical engineer by trade and entrepreneur at heart, Qasar transitioned from working on cars to building startups, eventually selling his second business venture TalkBin to Google in 2011. Qasar has also helped fund and advise early-stage companies as a partner at Y Combinator. Now, Qasar is the founder and CEO of Applied Intuition, a company valued at $1.25 billion that develops simulation software that engineers use to create self-driving systems.

In this episode of Go to Market Grit, Joubin and Qasar discuss what patterns Qasar has noticed about go-to-market strategies while working in startups and how he’s built two massively successful businesses.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why Qasar decided to enroll in Harvard Business School after working as a mechanical engineer. (4:20)
• How one of Qasar’s early startups, Camessa, failed — and what Qasar learned from this failure. (8:50)
• What Y Combinator does and how it has grown in scale. (11:11)
• How Qasar and others analyzed the retail market and the emergence of new technology to come up with the idea for TalkBin. (12:15)
• How Qasar’s “boots-on-the-ground” sales experience helps create a more balanced environment at Applied Intuition and how he learned about developing early sales motions while working at Y Combinator. (15:39)
• Qasar’s take on why centering a company around the customer can dismantle engineering-oriented cultures and unite a business around a common goal. (18:58)
• The divide between engineers and business people and why leaders need to have a diversity of skills. (21:40)
• ‘Market risk’: Why cultivating a deep understanding of the market and its demands can make or break a business. (24:43)
• Reasons why some businesses fail to listen to its customers. (30:53)
• What Qasar’s current business, Applied Intuition, does. (32:15)
• The present and future of autonomous cars. (34:21)
• How Applied Intuition penetrated the autonomous car market by creating software that manufacturers want. (37:50)
• Why Applied Intuition doesn’t only focus on selling to car manufacturers — and how its technology can save a business money. (45:24)
• Qasar’s thoughts on how long it will take for autonomous driving features to come standard in cars. (47:52)
• The cultural challenges of taking a company international and the importance of focusing on hiring the right people who can carry company values. (49:10)
• How Qasar defines grit. (53:22)