Anthropic’s $1B to $19B growth run: how Claude became the fastest-growing AI product in history | Amol Avasare

Key Takeaways

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  Activation is the highest-leverage growth lever for AI products - because AI often presents a 'blank box' problem, the team focuses on features like memory imports to help users find immediate utility.

  “Activation is a really big challenge in AI. We are starting to look at how do we automate growth.”

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  Anthropic is using AI to automate its own growth experiments - via an internal platform called CASH (Claude Accelerate Sustainable Hypergrowth), the team uses Claude to identify, run, and analyze experiments autonomously.

  “Our growth platform team is driving this effort called Cache, which is Claude Accelerate Sustainable Hypergrowth. How can we use Claude to automate growth experimentation?”

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  AI productivity gains are flipping traditional engineering-to-PM ratios - as AI tools make engineers exponentially more efficient, the organizational bottleneck shifts toward product strategy and discovery, requiring more PMs.

  “The ratio of PMs to engineers might need to flip (more PMs than engineers) as AI makes engineers exponentially more productive.”

Episode Description

Amol Avasare is Head of Growth at Anthropic, which is going through the most unprecedented growth trajectory in history—scaling from $1 billion to over $19 billion in ARR in just 14 months. Previously, Amol worked on the growth teams at Mercury and MasterClass. Before that he was a founder, and he cold emailed his way into the Anthropic role when no job listing existed. Most remarkably, he overcame a traumatic brain injury from a Muay Thai match that meant he couldn't work for nearly a year.In our in-depth discussion, Amol shares:1. How Amol landed his role by cold emailing Anthropic’s CPO Mike Krieger2. How Anthropic is automating growth experiments with Claude (their internal tool called “CASH”)3. Why the ratio of PMs to engineers might need to flip (more PMs than engineers) as AI makes engineers exponentially more productive4. Why activation is the single highest-leverage growth problem in AI5. Why Anthropic indexes 70/30 toward big bets (the opposite of most growth teams)6. How he uses Cowork to detect team misalignment in Slack7. How the company’s focus on AI coding created a research flywheel that accelerated their models—Brought to you by:WorkOS (https://workos.com/lenny)—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUsVanta (https://vanta.com/lenny)—Automate compliance, manage risk, and accelerate trust with AI—Episode transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run (https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run)—Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0 (https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0)—Where to find Amol Avasare:• X: https://x.com/TheAmolAvasare (https://x.com/TheAmolAvasare)• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amolavasare (https://www.linkedin.com/in/amolavasare)—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com (https://www.lennysnewsletter.com)• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan (https://twitter.com/lennysan)• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/)—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Introduction to Amol and Anthropic’s growth(03:15) The story of cold emailing Mike Krieger to get the job(08:28) What it’s like leading growth at the fastest-growing company ever(10:46) What the growth team actually does at Anthropic(12:16) The concept of “success disasters”(13:55) Why activation is the biggest challenge in AI products(18:05) Improving Mercury’s onboarding experience(20:57) The importance of adding the right kind of friction(25:10) Anthropic’s org structure(27:06) Why Anthropic focuses on big bets over micro-optimizations(33:34) Automating growth experiments with Claude (CASH)(38:20) How AI is starting to identify what experiments to run(41:07) The future of PM, engineering, and design roles(47:19) Why you might need more PMs as engineers get more productive(51:13) How Amol uses AI to prototype ideas and skip PRDs(58:10) Amol’s morning routine: AI analyzes 20 to 25 charts automatically(1:03:31) Getting coaching from an AI version of your manager(1:06:27) How Anthropic’s focus on coding and B2B drove their success(1:12:10) Balancing growth with AI safety as a core mission(1:18:09) Advice for thriving in an AI-first future(1:22:53) Anthropic’s culture and the “notebook channels” on Slack(1:35:12) Failure corner: Shutting down his startup after raising money(1:38:25) The traumatic brain injury that changed everything(1:46:49) Lightning round—References: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run (https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run)—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/ (https://penname.co/). For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com (mailto:podcast@lennyrachitsky.com).—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com (https://www.lennysnewsletter.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=show-notes-no-free-preview-language)