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

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 listenWhy 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. Keywordsunicorn founder, Bloomreach, Eightfold, product-market fit, pivot, HR space, digital marketers, talent, hiring, market need, scalingTimestamps:(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 AdviceSend me a message to let me know what you think!