Qasar Younis grew up on a farm in Pakistan, moved to Detroit as a kid, and worked at General Motors before landing at Google and becoming COO of Y Combinator. He then founded Applied Intuition, today a $15 billion company building AI for the physical world. In an industry where most people look up to tech founders, Qasar looks up to Sam Walton and Warren Buffett. Qasar is an N of 1 founder, and in this conversation, he shares his contrarian approach to company building.
We discuss:
* What truly makes a founder
* The “two exceptional indicators” recruiting bar
* Why Qasar’s first 10 hires lived in a house together
* A simple framework for monthly performance reviews
* The “golden age of small companies”
* How to operate with speed and intentionality
Referenced:
* Andrej Karpathy
* Applied Intuition
* Immad Akhund
* Kickstarter
* Peter Ludwig
* 18 Mistakes That Kill Startups
Where to find Qasar:
* Website
* Twitter / X
* LinkedIn
* Applied Intuition
Where to find Nakul:
* Twitter / X
* LinkedIn
Where to find Audacious Ventures:
* Website
* Twitter / X
* LinkedIn
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:19 What really makes someone a founder
05:26 The company that almost became Kickstarter
08:12 The most common misread on feedback
13:40 Why most founders don’t end up with the best team
19:45 How to pick a co-founder
23:38 Your first 10 hires are really your first 100
28:21 The case for hiring slow and firing slow
33:22 Red, yellow, green: how Applied gives monthly feedback
35:00 The role that knows what’s actually going on in a company
40:01 How to operate with speed and intentionality
42:41 The three things Qasar spends time on
45:57 How Applied is driving AI adoption
52:06 The type of engineer Applied is now looking for
1:01:19 Why this could be the golden age of small companies
1:09:13 Quickfire: red flags, overrated advice, and superpowers
1:12:32 Qasar’s advice to his 25-year-old self
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