Harry Zhang is the cofounder of Lob. Lob makes it possible for enterprises to programmatically send physical mail. They were in the Summer 2013 batch of YC.
https://twitter.com/harryzhang
https://lob.com
Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC.
https://twitter.com/ilikevests
The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.
https://twitter.com/craigcannon
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Topics
00:00 – Harry’s intro
00:10 – What did Lob have when they applied to YC?
1:30 – Documentation as an API company
2:45 – Where did the insight to create Lob come from?
3:55 – Lob’s first version and first customer
6:55 – Closing their first big customer then signing others
12:00 – Did Harry always know Lob would be an API company?
13:30 – How long did it take to work up to enterprise customers?
14:00 – Pricing
19:15 – Creating a product roadmap
20:55 – Tradeoffs when building product
21:50 – Competing for top engineers as an API company
24:00 – Options vs RSUs
27:30 – Sales mistakes
31:50 – Building out features for enterprise clients
33:45 – Why did Lob choose to not vertically integrate?
39:00 – How has Harry had to change as a founder over the life of Lob?
