GigaAI Startup School

Varun Vummadi (@varunvummadi) is the co-founder of @GigaAI, which builds AI agents for customer support for some of the biggest companies in the world, including DoorDash, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the US, and a top-three global telecom provider. At Startup School India, Varun sat down with YC's @agupta to talk about why he turned down a high-paying quant job to start a company, the multiple pivots it took to find the right problem, and how their small team of eight beat a 400-person competitor to land a contract with DoorDash. 01:33 — Early Days & Origin Story 03:37 — The YC Interview Disaster 06:28 — Pivoting Away From EdTech 07:25 — Finding the Real Idea 08:39 — Beating a Well-Funded Competitor 10:00 — Winning DoorDash With 8 People 11:09 — What GigaML Looks Like Now 12:40 — Advice for College Students 15:51 — Why Charge Early? 17:33 — The Next Big Bet 18:43 — Running the Company on AI 20:19 — How They Hire Engineers 22:04 — Product Over Sales 23:37 — Burn the Boats