Anil Varanasi, co-founder and CEO of Meter, is building a new kind of networking company for the AI era. Alongside his brother Sunil, he has helped raise more than $250 million to challenge incumbents like Cisco with a vertically integrated approach spanning hardware, software, deployment, and ongoing operations, all delivered through a utility-style model. His view is that networking has remained largely unchanged for decades, even as it has become foundational to everything from AI workloads to real-world infrastructure. Meter’s ambition is not just to improve existing networks, but to make them autonomous over time. Before starting the company, Anil and Sunil were deeply involved in filmmaking, a background that still shapes their philosophy of building with cathedral-level craft across every layer of the stack.
Together we explore:
- The “burden of knowledge” and why progress is getting harder across fields
- Why most companies over-index on technology and ignore business model innovation
- The three ways companies create advantage: technology, delivery, and business model
- How Meter’s trade-in model borrows from the automotive industry
- Why networking should function like electricity or water—not hardware
- Lessons from Japanese vending machine logistics for infrastructure deployment
- The hidden coordination problem behind vertically integrated companies
- Why Anil believes “common knowledge” is often wrong
- How COVID forced Meter to abandon geographic constraints and scale nationally
- The case for fully autonomous networks in a world of exploding demand
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Transcript: https://www.generalist.com/p/the-case-for-autonomous-networks
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Timestamps
(00:00) Introduction to Anil Varanasi and Meter
(03:52) The burden of knowledge and slowing innovation
(08:18) Losing creativity vs gaining expertise
(10:25) What Meter actually does
(13:26) Early life, immigration, and upbringing
(15:47) Parental influence
(20:03) Film, storytelling, and creative influence
(22:55) Why Anil didn’t pursue filmmaking
(25:44) Parallels between company building and filmmaking
(27:00) Early programming and building
(28:05) George Mason and understanding systems
(29:59) The dynamic of working with his brother as a co-founder
(34:03) His first business and lessons learned (or lack thereof)
(35:15) Lessons from successful companies
(38:16) Japanese vending machines and logistics insight
(41:10) Scrapping 18 months of work
(42:40) Conviction and long-term company building
(46:02) COVID shock and near-death moment
(49:59) Building hardware like a cathedral
(52:25) Rethinking the networking business model
(57:06) Build vs buy and transaction costs
(59:39) Networking as infrastructure and utility
(01:01:30) The case for autonomous networks
(01:03:25) Hiring, talent, and what actually matters
(01:06:15) Big unanswered questions (sleep, science)
(01:07:28) Rethinking education
(01:09:02) Infinite games and long-term thinking
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Follow Anil Varanasi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anilcv
X: https://x.com/acv
Website: https://anilv.com
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Resources and episode mentions: https://www.generalist.com/p/the-case-for-autonomous-networks
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The Generalist 
