#123 - Harry Zhang and Kevin Hale
Y Combinator Startup Podcast - A podcast by Y Combinator
Categories:
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.
Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC.
Harry is on Twitter @harryzhang and Kevin is @ilikevests.
The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.
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Topics
00:00 - Intro
00:31 - Harry's intro
00:41 - What did Lob have when they applied to YC?
2:01 - Documentation as an API company
3:16 - Where did the insight to create Lob come from?
4:26 - Lob's first version and first customer
7:26 - Closing their first big customer then signing others
12:31 - Did Harry always know Lob would be an API company?
14:01 - How long did it take to work up to enterprise customers?
15:31 - Pricing
19:46 - Creating a product roadmap
21:26 - Tradeoffs when building product
22:21 - Competing for top engineers as an API company
24:31 - Options vs RSUs
28:01 - Sales mistakes
32:21 - Building out features for enterprise clients
34:16 - Why did Lob choose to not vertically integrate?
39:31 - How has Harry had to change as a founder over the life of Lob?
