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Back to Inside the AI Startup Making Customer Support 65% Cheaper, with Jesse Zhang.

How Many People Have Left Decagon to Start Companies?

Jesse Zhang says very few people have left Decagon, a few have gone to start their own companies, and even in a downturn it will still be pretty easy to start a company. The only good thing about a downturn may be that recruiting gets easier.

The last few quarters have been very good. When the team recaps a quarter, everyone is told to get ready, because it is not always going to be so easy, and to build grit now. Too many companies make recruiting very difficult, and it is really easy to be a founder. A lot of people at Decagon have a strong entrepreneurial sense. They were founders before or they want to be founders. With a very low barrier to entry, people start companies even if they do not have an idea and even if they are not sure it is the right time.

Grokipedia·Decagon

Transcript

Inside the AI Startup Making Customer Support 65% Cheaper ·

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More from this episode

  1. When Did Decagon's New Office Feel Too Big?Jesse Zhang felt Decagon's new office was too big the moment the team moved in.
  2. How Did Decagon Grow From 50 to 500 People?Jesse Zhang says Decagon went from roughly 50 or 60 people to 500 in about the last year, close to a 10x jump. A year ago the headcount was something like 50.
  3. Why Does Jesse Zhang Call Saturday Wife Day?Jesse Zhang keeps Saturday as wife day because he and his co-founder are in every day except Saturday, and that one day has to stay free of work.
  4. Why Is Zero to One Harder Than Scaling?Jesse Zhang says the zero-to-one phase is by far the hardest stage of a company, and he calls it awful.
  5. How Did Decagon Exit the Idea Maze in Three Weeks?Jesse Zhang says Decagon got out of the idea maze in roughly three weeks, maybe a bit longer.
  6. How Does Decagon's AI Customer Support Work?Jesse Zhang says Decagon's customer support AI is built, tested, and monitored inside the product, so the customer owns the results and the process.
  7. Should I Know My Co-founder for Five Years?Jesse Zhang says wanting the same things out of life matters more than knowing a co-founder for five years.
  8. Can 200 People Eat Dinner Together?Jesse Zhang says a team of 200 people cannot eat dinner together anymore. Catering has one clear value: everyone eats at the same time.
  9. When Does Office Politics Start?Jesse Zhang says office politics starts as soon as there is a team.

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