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Lenny's 🏦 Vault

61 Growth & Scaling Tactics shared on Lenny's Podcast

Authentic Social Posts Outperform AI-Generated Copy
By Elena Verna - The new AI growth playbook for 2026 | How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year

Authentic personality-driven posts on X and LinkedIn outperform AI-generated copy for B2B audiences.

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Elena Verna
The new AI growth playbook for 2026 | How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year

Authentic Social Posts Outperform AI-Generated Copy

Authentic personality-driven posts on X and LinkedIn outperform AI-generated copy for B2B audiences.

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Garrett Lord
Inside the expert network training every frontier AI model | Garrett Lord

AI Replacing Resume Reviews at Handshake

Handshake uses AI interviewers and work simulations to replace reviewing 200 resumes, improving matching and saving employers billions.

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Benjamin Mann
Anthropic co-founder: AGI predictions, leaving OpenAI, what keeps him up at night | Ben Mann

Economic Engine Funds AI Safety Research

Shipping revenue-generating tools like Claude Code creates the economic engine and influence Anthropic needs to finance long-term safety research.

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Alexander Imbirikos
Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI)

Reddit Provides Better Feedback Than Twitter for Codex Team

His team monitors r/Codex and other threads because upvotes and fewer bots surface genuine, high-priority complaints.

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Alexander Imbirikos
Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI)

IDE Integration Unlocked Codex's 20x Growth

Switching from cloud delegation to an IDE/CLI sandbox agent made adoption trivial and became the key unlock for Codex’s explosive growth.

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Howie Liu
How we restructured Airtable's entire org for AI | Howie Liu (co-founder and CEO)

Airtable Embraces PLG With "Just Start Building" Homepage

Airtable doubles-down on PLG by making its homepage ask users to 'just start building', letting them experience the product immediately.

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Chip Conley
Brian Chesky's secret mentor who scaled Airbnb (after dying 9 times & building a hotel empire)

ChatGPT Provides First Draft for Daily Blog

Chip uses ChatGPT to generate a 250-word first draft when inspiration lags, then edits it for his daily blog.

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Elena Verna
The new AI growth playbook for 2026 | How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year

Organic Marketing Shift From SEO to Social

Organic marketing has moved from Google SEO to social posts by founders, employees and users.

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Ethan Smith
The ultimate guide to AEO: How to get ChatGPT to recommend your product | Ethan Smith (Graphite)

Help Center Optimization for AEO

Move help centre to a subdirectory, add rich cross-links, and crowdsource long-tail articles to capture support search traffic.

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Nick Turley
Inside ChatGPT: The fastest growing product in history | Nick Turley (OpenAI)

ChatGPT's $20 Price Point Started as Demand Control

The $20 subscription was launched mainly to turn away casual demand and evolved into a huge consumer and enterprise revenue stream.

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Owen McCabe
How Intercom rose from the ashes by betting everything on AI | Eoghan McCabe (founder and CEO)

Fin's Rapid Growth to $100M ARR

Fin scaled from $1 M to $12 M ARR in year one, now growing 300 %+ and projected to top $100 M within three quarters.

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Nabil Qureshi
How Palantir built the ultimate founder factory | Nabeel S. Qureshi (founder, writer, ex-Palantir)

Ask for Big Money Early to Validate Ideas

When showing a product, immediately ask customers for a large payment; if they refuse, abandon the idea instead of iterating for weeks.

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Benjamin Mann
Anthropic co-founder: AGI predictions, leaving OpenAI, what keeps him up at night | Ben Mann

Teammates Deflect Questions With "Let Me Claude That For You"

Anthropic teammates increasingly deflect questions with “let me Claude that for you,” encouraging everyone to query their own model before pinging people.

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Lenny Rachitsky
How Palantir built the ultimate founder factory | Nabeel S. Qureshi (founder, writer, ex-Palantir)

Client-Funded Problem Solving Becomes High-Margin Product

Palantir solved a single client’s problem, funded by that client, then generalised the solution into a product it could sell broadly with 80%+ margins.

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Will Larson
The engineering mindset | Will Larson (Carta, Stripe, Uber, Calm, Digg)

Writing What Energizes You Builds Lasting Audience

He argues that steadily publishing quality work for years, rather than chasing hot trends, is the surest path to a durable, portable audience.

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John Zorotsky
Rapidly test and validate any startup idea with the 2-day Foundation Sprint

Free Miro Template for Foundation Sprints

John offers a Miro template so founders can run their own foundation sprints and speed up product-market fit.

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Matt Lemay
The one question that saves product careers | Matt LeMay

Converting Single-Product Users to Multiproduct Users Increases Lifetime Value

Target converting single-product users to multiproduct users to capture higher customer lifetime value and hit revenue goals.

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Elena Verna
The new AI growth playbook for 2026 | How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year

Standing Up Multiple Growth Initiatives in Dynamic AI Markets

To capture perishable demand and outpace rivals, the team simultaneously stands up many initiatives, accepting that more loops can still drive more growth in such...

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David Plasik
Naming expert shares process for creating billion-dollar brands: Vercel, Azure, Windsurf, Sonos

Domain Names Are Area Codes

.com addresses now act like area codes, so secure the right name first and add modifiers or buy the URL later.

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Ethan Smith
The ultimate guide to AEO: How to get ChatGPT to recommend your product | Ethan Smith (Graphite)

Focus on Top Three LLM Surfaces

Track and optimise for the few LLM surfaces with most traffic, expecting about three long-term winners rather than all ten options.

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Madhavan Ramanujam
Pricing your AI product: Lessons from 400+ companies and 50 unicorns | Madhavan Ramanujam

Hybrid Pricing Model for High-Attribution Products

For high-attribution but non-autonomous products, he suggests combining seat pricing with consumption-based AI credits.

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Owen McCabe
How Intercom rose from the ashes by betting everything on AI | Eoghan McCabe (founder and CEO)

Intercom Built Fin Beta in Six Weeks Using Massive Customer Data

Intercom used data from 30k customers, hundreds of thousands of users and billions of events to train its Fin beta within six weeks.

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Peter Dang
From ChatGPT to Instagram to Uber: The quiet architect behind the world’s most popular products

Product Craft Can Overcome Distribution Advantages

Highly polished, delightful product experiences can persuade users to switch despite competitors’ massive distribution advantages.

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Peter Dang
From ChatGPT to Instagram to Uber: The quiet architect behind the world’s most popular products

Most Valuable Tech Companies Built on Existing Technology

He notes companies like Facebook and Uber won by relentless iteration on simple ideas built atop existing tech, not breakthrough inventions.

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Mike Krieger
Anthropic's CPO on what comes next | Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram)

Instagram's Organic Growth vs. Artifact's Ethical Constraints

Instagram grew organically because users reposted their photos on other networks, a viral mechanic Artifact could not ethically replicate.

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Nick Turley
Inside ChatGPT: The fastest growing product in history | Nick Turley (OpenAI)

Nick Mines TikTok Comments for ChatGPT Use Cases

Nick scans viral TikTok comment threads packed with thousands of examples to surface emergent use cases and product ideas.

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Zevi Arnovitz
How a Meta PM ships products without ever writing code | Zevi Arnovitz

Basketball Chant Sales Hook

Zevi wrote a basketball-game chant embedding his phone number and discount hook, turning spectators into customers in real time.

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Jason Lemkin
We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here’s what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)

AI Agents Outperform Mid-Pack SDRs

A well-trained agent outperforms mid-pack SDRs because most humans send poorly researched, generic emails.

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Brian Balfour
Why ChatGPT will be the next big growth channel (and how to capitalize on it) | Brian Balfour

Developers Invest Where MAUs and Retention Are Higher

Brian notes developers will logically invest scarce resources where MAUs and retention are 10Ă— higher, reinforcing the leading ecosystem.

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Brian Balfour
Why ChatGPT will be the next big growth channel (and how to capitalize on it) | Brian Balfour

Platforms Trade Distribution for Developer Adoption

Platforms entice third-party developers by trading organic feed and notification reach for new applications that expand use cases and engagement.

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Jason Lemkin
We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here’s what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)

Reserve Manual Outreach for High-Value Targets

Keep manual, deeply researched outreach for a short list of high-value targets where deal size makes the effort worthwhile.

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Howie Liu
How we restructured Airtable's entire org for AI | Howie Liu (co-founder and CEO)

Self-Serve AI Access Delivers Greater Value

Howie argues the best way to deliver AI value is letting anyone self-serve and experience it, citing ChatGPT’s open sign-up as proof of superior PLG...

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Ethan Smith
The ultimate guide to AEO: How to get ChatGPT to recommend your product | Ethan Smith (Graphite)

Chat Prompts Have Larger Tail Than Search

Chat prompts average 25 words, so create content for ultra-specific follow-up questions to capture the expansive long tail.

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Alexander Imbirikos
Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI)

ChatGPT's Consumer Adoption Drives Enterprise Usage

By making ChatGPT ubiquitous outside work, users get comfortable and naturally adopt it on the job, driving sticky enterprise usage.

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Owen McCabe
How Intercom rose from the ashes by betting everything on AI | Eoghan McCabe (founder and CEO)

Fin Doubles Intercom's Growth Rate

Fin has doubled Intercom’s growth, moving it from low single digits to fifteenth percentile among public software firms, with aim to become fastest growing.

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Sander Schulhof
Why securing AI is harder than anyone expected and guardrails are failing | HackAPrompt CEO

AI Legislation Drives Compliance Industry

With expanding AI legislation, firms like Trustable prosper by keeping companies updated on compliance and governance requirements.

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Molly Graham
The high-growth handbook: Molly Graham’s frameworks for leading through chaos, change, and scale

Sheryl Sandberg's Growth Rule: 50% Happy, 100% Manageable

Sheryl Sandberg’s rule: 50% annual headcount growth is happiest, 100% manageable, and beyond that causes duplication, chaos and slower execution.

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Mike Krieger
Anthropic's CPO on what comes next | Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram)

Claude Reviewing Claude's Code

The Claude code team lets one Claude generate pull requests and another Claude review them while humans do acceptance tests, greatly accelerating merges.

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Madhavan Ramanujam
Pricing your AI product: Lessons from 400+ companies and 50 unicorns | Madhavan Ramanujam

Frame Pricing as ROI Share or Justified Range

When pressed for price, frame cost as a 1-to-10 ROI share or present a justified range to avoid low anchors.

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Elena Verna
The new AI growth playbook for 2026 | How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year

Full-Time Vibe Coder Accelerates Development

Adding a full-time no-code vibe coder accelerates template creation and side-app launches like an extra engineer.

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Brett Taylor
He saved OpenAI, invented the “Like” button, and built Google Maps: Bret Taylor (Sierra)

Sierra's Outcome-Based Pricing Model

Sierra earns a set fee for each AI-resolved call, directly tying revenue to the $10-$20 cost a customer avoids per deflection.

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Dan Shipper
The AI-native startup: 5 products, 7-figure revenue, 100% AI-written code. | Dan Shipper (Every)

AI Accelerates Learning Curve

Alex Duffy recorded every writing critique, fed transcripts into a prompt, and eliminated repeat mistakes, compressing a year’s progress into two months.

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Nasreen Shengal
A 4-step framework for building delightful products | Nesrine Changuel (Spotify, Google, Skype)

Buffer Offered Refunds to Inactive Users

Buffer emailed the 2 % of inactive paying users offering refunds to build trust and deepen the customer relationship, even at short-term revenue cost.

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Jason Lemkin
We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here’s what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)

Digital Jason Agent Sold $70k Sponsorship

A general-purpose digital Jason agent independently sold a $70k sponsorship, validating agent-led sales.

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Ethan Smith
The ultimate guide to AEO: How to get ChatGPT to recommend your product | Ethan Smith (Graphite)

B2B LLM Traffic Requires Multiple Tracking Methods

For B2B where answers are rarely clickable, combine answer-tracking visibility with post-conversion surveys because last-touch referral misleads.

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Howie Liu
How we restructured Airtable's entire org for AI | Howie Liu (co-founder and CEO)

AI Agent Becomes Default Interface at Airtable

Airtable shifted so the AI agent is now the default way of doing everything, turning the old UI into an artefact the agent manipulates to...

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Jason Lemkin
We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here’s what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)

Owner.com Targets 10x Revenue Per Rep With AI

Owner.com targets US$3–5 million revenue per rep—10× historic norms—by equipping its 100-person sales team with AI tools.

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Jason Lemkin
We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here’s what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)

AI Sales Agents Effective for Smaller Companies

Companies with ~300 customers and 30k contacts still gain from agents; you need some traffic, not giant databases, to see value.

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Dan Shipper
The AI-native startup: 5 products, 7-figure revenue, 100% AI-written code. | Dan Shipper (Every)

Prompts Stored in GitHub for Workflow Automation

Dan explains they store slash-command prompts in GitHub and Cloud Code to automate PRD creation and speed repeated workflows.

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Mike Krieger
Anthropic's CPO on what comes next | Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram)

Customers Push Model Boundaries Through Early Access

Anthropic broadens early-access so customers push models to the limit, capture traces, and validate gains with every new release.

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Elena Verna
The new AI growth playbook for 2026 | How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year

Net Dollar Retention Exceeds 100% From Building Credits

Users buy additional credits as they build, yielding net dollar retention above 100%.

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Ethan Smith
The ultimate guide to AEO: How to get ChatGPT to recommend your product | Ethan Smith (Graphite)

Reddit Strategy: Authentic Helpfulness Beats Mass Spam

Create a named account, state your role and post genuinely helpful answers on relevant threads; even five quality posts beat mass spam.

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Peter Dang
From ChatGPT to Instagram to Uber: The quiet architect behind the world’s most popular products

Retention Is Key Product Indicator

Peter states “retention is the key indicator… plot the cohort retention line and if it asymptotes then you're in a good spot”.

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Mike Krieger
Anthropic's CPO on what comes next | Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram)

MCP Protocol Enables Cross-Model Integrations

By turning integrations into the open MCP protocol that any model can use, Anthropic encourages developers to build once and scale across Claude, ChatGPT and...

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Brian Balfour
Why ChatGPT will be the next big growth channel (and how to capitalize on it) | Brian Balfour

ChatGPT's Coming Third-Party Platform

Brian outlines launching an agent platform that offers developers context, memory and distribution in exchange for integrations to expand use cases.

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Claire Vo
Bending the universe in your favor | Claire Vo (LaunchDarkly, Color, Optimizely, ChatPRD)

Consistency Drives Audience Growth

Posting daily boosted followers and algorithm exposure, showing that consistency in content drives audience growth.

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Ethan Smith
The ultimate guide to AEO: How to get ChatGPT to recommend your product | Ethan Smith (Graphite)

LinkedIn Comments Drive Distribution

Ethan notes that long, thoughtful comments on LinkedIn posts trigger higher engagement and broader distribution, making it a key growth lever for personal and brand...

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Jason Lemkin
We replaced our sales team with 20 AI agents—here’s what happened next | Jason Lemkin (SaaStr)

SaaStr Replaced Sales Team with AI Agents

SaaStr swapped 8-9 salespeople for 20 AI agents plus 1.2 humans, keeping revenue steady while cutting cost.

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Benjamin Mann
Anthropic co-founder: AGI predictions, leaving OpenAI, what keeps him up at night | Ben Mann

$100 Million AI Researcher Packages Are Cost-Effective

Ben explains that paying elite researchers about $100 million is cost-effective since a 1–5% inference efficiency gain yields immense business value.

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Lenny Rachitsky
The new AI growth playbook for 2026 | How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year

Product Team Owns Activation at Lovable

Lenny notes Lovable embeds activation goals within the AI product team, avoiding a separate growth team and keeping focus on the magic moment.

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Matt Lemay
The one question that saves product careers | Matt LeMay

Redesigning Onboarding for Multiproduct Conversion

Redesign onboarding to categorise users early and direct them into multiproduct usage, potentially achieving the whole conversion goal.