20VC Exclusive: Mercor Raises $100M at a $2BN Valuation: Scaling to $70M in ARR in 24 Months | 9-9-6: 9AM-9PM - 6 Days Per Week: The Most Intense Culture in Silicon Valley | The Future of Programming, Models and Data with Adarsh Hiremath
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...
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:
04:36 How Debating Makes The Best Founders
06:05 Do People Treat You Differently When a Unicorn Founder
10:58 Scaling to $70M ARR in 24 Months
13:42 How Culture Breaks When Scaling So Fast
23:49 The Future of Foundation Models
24:05 OpenAI vs Anthropic
24:32 Data: Synthetic vs Human
27:10 The Future of Programming and AI
28:15 The Impact of AI Tools on Software Development
28:51 Why Software Will Become Commoditised
29:55 Network Effects and Marketplaces
33:13 Raising From Benchmark After a Helicopter Ride
37:30 Quickfire Round: Insights and Reflections