v0’s GM on powering the next 100m builders, monetizing infra products, and more | Zeb Hermann

In this episode of Second Acts, Krish is joined by Zeb Hermann, General Manager of v0 at Vercel.Zeb unpacks: the biggest lessons from his time at Segment and Sequoia Capital, why he joined Vercel (makers of Next.js and AI SDK) to lead initiatives (such as pricing and packaging) with “asymmetric upside,” v0’s origins (as Vercel’s second act) and how it has exploded to reach millions of users in the most intensely competitive competitive of AI categories, how the v0 team is structured as customer zero within Vercel, why it takes Caltech PHDs to scale their infrastructure pricing, v0’s deep vertical adjacencies and the differentiation that that unlocks, what he envisions as the ideal monetization model for AI, some amazing book recs via lectures he attended at The Long Now Foundation, and so much more. —Chapters:(00:00) Episode intro (03:39) v0: Vercel’s magisterial second act(04:59) “What’s the scale of your ambition?”(10:23) Asymmetric upside (12:20) No (long-term) random acts of AI(14:16) Being customer zero (15:51) v0 as a startup within Vercel(19:55) v0’s unique PLG-enterprise barbell(23:48) Vercel’s deep vertical differentiation(29:35) Value, Caltech PHDs, and Vercel’s pricing(35:35) Expanding to adjacent product lines(38:56) “Should this even be a separate product?”(41:41) Margins and value-aligned AI monetization(43:43) Zeb’s radical, two-year vision for v0(47:11) Zeb’s favourite books on scaling decisions —VercelGuillermo Rauch Next.js by Vercel ShadCN UI Tailwind CSSNikita Shamgunov Segment Zhenya Loginov Sequoia Capital Miro Opendoor CEO’s AI memoCaltech Harpreet Arora Malte Ubl Fluid compute Fluid compute pricing Algorithms to Live By (Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths) Scale (Geoffrey West) The Long Now Foundation Magic Patterns Greedy algorithm —Connect with Zeb:LinkedIn X—Connect with KrishLinkedIn X —About Chargebee:Chargebee helps thousands of recurring revenue businesses unlock second acts of scale with transformative billing, monetization, and growth infra.