First Round Capital

What’s it like working at Notion? Kind of like a jazz band. High agency, low bureaucracy and lots of “yes, and…” 

“Blank check founders” are the ones I’d fund pre-idea, no matter what it is. Snir Kodesh is one of them. I’ve known him for 5+ years through our First Round Capital community: Angel Track, Eng Leaders Forum, PMF Method. His first company was acquired by Lyft, and he later went on to lead engineering at Retool. When he was ready for his next thing, we invested before he even had a specific idea. He ended up in a domain most founders wouldn’t dare touch — enterprise audit — but one he knows extremely well. Snir is deeply technical and innately commercial, a heat-seeking missile when it comes to finding a big problem and imagining the right technology to solve it. Today, Petual is coming out of stealth with $20M in funding. They’re bringing agentic AI to SOX testing, autonomously generating auditor-ready work papers in minutes instead of hours. Early customers, including S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 companies across energy, SaaS and financial services, can see 68-80% efficiency gains on workflows that today eat hundreds of hours per quarter. $8B goes to SOX compliance in the US every year, but that’s just the start. The broader audit opportunity is massive — and to tackle both, Snir built a team of folks from Stripe, Retool, Lyft and the Big Four who understand these problems from all angles.

Many AI conversations are philosophical. This one won’t be. If you’re shipping AI in production, join us and other top builders to discuss how to actually get this technology into the hands of real users at scale (not just build a flashy demo). Apply to join here: https://lnkd.in/gcX8D4A6

Here is Lenny Rachitsky's advice to aspiring creators: spend more time in your day job. “You have to tap into the experience you had working a regular job for the rest of your life. You run out of advice or insights or lessons to share. Spend more time doing the work, to build more experience, so you don’t run out,” he says. Having been out of the product world for about six years, Rachitsky realizes that his time as a PM is a depreciating asset. He's always been able to lean on this work experience — whether it's his first-hand knowledge of a topic or pulling the best information out of a guest. And with so much changing, he's worried about his ability to keep up. Read the in-depth profile here: https://lnkd.in/geBATnqq

When Lenny Rachitsky left Airbnb, he created a personal board of directors — 30 friends he’d email every two weeks with his goals. They didn’t need to respond. The email alone created accountability. One update from 2019 said: “I have no plans to do writing full-time (please slap me if I ever say I do).” Now, his newsletter has 1.2M subscribers. It’s the top business newsletter on Substack and is top four in publications in the US. And he's added a podcast with nearly 600K YouTube subscribers. Our writer, Nate Martins, spent hours in Rachitsky’s home to learn what drives the person behind one of the most influential platforms in tech. It starts long before the newsletter. Read the profile here: https://lnkd.in/geBATnqq

Lenny Rachitsky gets about 200 requests per week — events, partnerships, content collaborations, speaking opportunities. He declines 99.9% of them by using pre-written email templates tailored to each category of request. "If I said yes to this thing, there are 20 other versions of that thing I'd have to say yes to," he says. "It's mostly just the volume. Saying no kindly is work.” But it’s not random. Before Rachitsky says yes to anything, he asks an important question: If his audience will get value from it, can he or someone else do it at the level he demands? If the answer is yes, he’ll find a way to make it happen. This filter explains almost everything he’s built: his newsletter, his podcast (and adding more podcasts to his network), his conference, his product pass, and much more. We spent a day at Rachitsky’s home to understand what actually drives the person behind one of the most influential platforms in tech. Saying no, to protect his time for every yes, is a bigger part of everything than most people realize. Read the full profile here: https://lnkd.in/geBATnqq

We got a rare look inside Lenny Rachitsky’s home to learn how he built one of the largest platforms in tech. Rachitsky doesn’t usually do interviews or talk about his personal life. He guards his time obsessively. “I have a rule: no meetings before 3pm,” he said to our writer, as the clock ticked past 9:30am. “This is an exception.” He says his goal with Lenny’s Newsletter was just to live a chill life. Has his success changed that? Read our in-depth profile of Rachitsky here: https://lnkd.in/geBATnqq