Adarsh Hiremath @ Mercor: The Most Intense Culture in Silicon Valley | E1261

Adarsh Hiremath is the Co-Founder and CTO @ Mercor, an AI recruitment platform and one of the fastest-growing companies in technology. They have scaled to $70M in ARR in just 24 months. They are famed for working 6 days per week, 9AM to 9PM. All of their founders are Thiel fellows, they are also the youngest unicorn founders ever with the fundraise announced today raising $100M led by Felicis at a $2BN valuation. ---------------------------------------------- In Today’s Episode We Discuss: (00:00) Intro (01:01) How Debating Makes The Best Founders (02:30) Do People Treat You Differently When a Unicorn Founder (07:39) Scaling to $70M ARR in 24 Months (11:08) How Culture Breaks When Scaling So Fast (24:07) The Future of Foundation Models (24:40) OpenAI vs Anthropic (25:22) Data: Synthetic vs Human (28:23) The Future of Programming and AI (29:29) The Impact of AI Tools on Software Development (30:26) Why Software Will Become Commoditised (31:46) Network Effects and Marketplaces (35:38) Raising From Benchmark After a Helicopter Ride (40:48) Quick-Fire Round ----------------------------------------------- Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3j2KMcZTtgTNBKwtZBMHvl?si=85bc9196860e4466 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-twenty-minute-vc-20vc-venture-capital-startup/id958230465 Follow Harry Stebbings on X: https://twitter.com/HarryStebbings Follow Adarsh Hiremath on X: https://twitter.com/adarsh_exe Follow 20VC on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/20vchq Follow 20VC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@20vc_tok Visit our Website: https://www.20vc.com Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.thetwentyminutevc.com/contact ----------------------------------------------- #20vc #harrystebbings #adarshhiremath #mercor #openai #anthropic #ai #scaling #startups #fundraising