He quit his cozy Google job & founded not 1 but 2 unicorns— then grew from $1M to $12M ARR in 2 years. | Ashutosh Garg, Founder of Eightfold AI

A Product Market Fit Show | Startups, Founders, & Entrepreneurship

Ashutosh is one of those rare founders who founded not just one, but two unicorns. He worked at Google for 4 years, left and started Bloomreach, which was last valued at $2.2B.
Halfway through that journey, he left to do it all over again. He started Eightfold AI which is the one we're talking about today. In 2021, he raised $220M from Softbank at a $2.1B valuation.
When he left Bloomreach, he didn't even have a clear idea of what he was going to build. He just knew he wanted to have more impact and go from 0 to 1 again.
It took him about 2 years to figure it out— then he grew from $1M ARR to $3M ARR in a year & to $12M ARR the year after that.

Why you should listen

• Why founders need to validate ideas with an open mind to not have tunnel vision.
• Why even unicorn founders don't get it right and often need to pivot to success.
• How to address problems that are not just today problems, but likely to be problems for a long time.

Keywords

unicorn founder, Bloomreach, Eightfold, product-market fit, pivot, HR space, digital marketers, talent, hiring, market need, scaling
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:41) His first unicorn - Bloomreach
(00:05:22) Starting Eightfold AI
(00:08:50) Not Marrying Yourself to One Idea
(00:11:55) Finding real customer problems
(00:14:46) Solving Today's Problems vs Future Problems
(00:16:47) Hiring From Already Rejected Candidates
(00:22:50) Fundraising
(00:24:40) Building a V1
(00:27:00) Pivoting and then Reverting Back
(00:30:43) First Customers
(00:32:59) Finding Product Market Fit
(00:35:04) One Piece of Advice
Send me a message to let me know what you think!

Chapters

1. He quit his cozy Google job & founded not 1 but 2 unicorns— then grew from $1M to $12M ARR in 2 years. | Ashutosh Garg, Founder of Eightfold AI (00:00:00)

2. His first unicorn - Bloomreach (00:01:41)

3. Starting Eightfold AI (00:05:22)

4. Not Marrying Yourself to One Idea (00:08:50)

5. Finding real customer problems (00:11:55)

6. Solving Today's Problems vs Future Problems (00:14:46)

7. Hiring From Already Rejected Candidates (00:16:47)

8. How to fundraise (00:22:50)

9. Building a V1 (00:24:40)

10. Pivoting and then Reverting Back (00:27:00)

11. First Customers (00:30:43)

12. Finding Product Market Fit (00:32:59)

13. One Piece of Advice (00:35:04)