<description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Amol Avasare&lt;/strong&gt; 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.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In our in-depth discussion, Amol shares:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;1. How Amol landed his role by cold emailing Anthropic’s CPO Mike Krieger&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;2. How Anthropic is automating growth experiments with Claude (their internal tool called “CASH”)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;3. Why the ratio of PMs to engineers might need to flip (more PMs than engineers) as AI makes engineers exponentially more productive&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;4. Why activation is the single highest-leverage growth problem in AI&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;5. Why Anthropic indexes 70/30 toward big bets (the opposite of most growth teams)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;6. How he uses Cowork to detect team misalignment in Slack&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;7. How the company’s focus on AI coding created a research flywheel that accelerated their models&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;—&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Brought to you by:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://workos.com/lenny"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;WorkOS&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://vanta.com/lenny"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Vanta&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;—Automate compliance, manage risk, and accelerate trust with AI&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;—&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Episode transcript: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run"&gt;https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;—&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts:&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;a target="_blank" href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&amp;#38;st=ahz0fj11&amp;#38;dl=0"&gt;https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&amp;st=ahz0fj11&amp;dl=0&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;—&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where to find Amol Avasare:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;• X: &lt;a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/TheAmolAvasare"&gt;https://x.com/TheAmolAvasare&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;• LinkedIn: &lt;a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/amolavasare"&gt;https://www.linkedin.com/in/amolavasare&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;—&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where to find Lenny:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;• Newsletter: &lt;a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com"&gt;https://www.lennysnewsletter.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;• X: &lt;a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/lennysan"&gt;https://twitter.com/lennysan&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;• LinkedIn: &lt;a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/"&gt;https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;—&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In this episode, we cover:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(00:00) Introduction to Amol and Anthropic’s growth&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(03:15) The story of cold emailing Mike Krieger to get the job&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(08:28) What it’s like leading growth at the fastest-growing company ever&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(10:46) What the growth team actually does at Anthropic&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(12:16) The concept of “success disasters”&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(13:55) Why activation is the biggest challenge in AI products&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(18:05) Improving Mercury’s onboarding experience&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(20:57) The importance of adding the right kind of friction&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(25:10) Anthropic’s org structure&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(27:06) Why Anthropic focuses on big bets over micro-optimizations&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(33:34) Automating growth experiments with Claude (CASH)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(38:20) How AI is starting to identify what experiments to run&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(41:07) The future of PM, engineering, and design roles&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(47:19) Why you might need &lt;em&gt;more&lt;/em&gt; PMs as engineers get more productive&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(51:13) How Amol uses AI to prototype ideas and skip PRDs&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(58:10) Amol’s morning routine: AI analyzes 20 to 25 charts automatically&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(1:03:31) Getting coaching from an AI version of your manager&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(1:06:27) How Anthropic’s focus on coding and B2B drove their success&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(1:12:10) Balancing growth with AI safety as a core mission&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(1:18:09) Advice for thriving in an AI-first future&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(1:22:53) Anthropic’s culture and the “notebook channels” on Slack&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(1:35:12) Failure corner: Shutting down his startup after raising money&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(1:38:25) The traumatic brain injury that changed everything&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;(1:46:49) Lightning round&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;—&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;References: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run"&gt;https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;—&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Production and marketing by &lt;a target="_blank" href="https://penname.co/"&gt;https://penname.co/&lt;/a&gt;. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email &lt;a target="_blank" href="mailto:podcast@lennyrachitsky.com"&gt;podcast@lennyrachitsky.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;—&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;br/&gt;&lt;br/&gt;To hear more, visit &lt;a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com?utm_medium=podcast&amp;#38;utm_campaign=show-notes-no-free-preview-language"&gt;www.lennysnewsletter.com&lt;/a&gt;</description>

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Lenny Rachitsky

Head of Growth (Anthropic): “Claude is growing itself at this point” | Amol Avasare

APR 5, 2026112 MIN
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Head of Growth (Anthropic): “Claude is growing itself at this point” | Amol Avasare

APR 5, 2026112 MIN

Description

<p><strong>Amol Avasare</strong> 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.</p><p></p><p><strong>In our in-depth discussion, Amol shares:</strong></p><p>1. How Amol landed his role by cold emailing Anthropic’s CPO Mike Krieger</p><p>2. How Anthropic is automating growth experiments with Claude (their internal tool called “CASH”)</p><p>3. Why the ratio of PMs to engineers might need to flip (more PMs than engineers) as AI makes engineers exponentially more productive</p><p>4. Why activation is the single highest-leverage growth problem in AI</p><p>5. Why Anthropic indexes 70/30 toward big bets (the opposite of most growth teams)</p><p>6. How he uses Cowork to detect team misalignment in Slack</p><p>7. How the company’s focus on AI coding created a research flywheel that accelerated their models</p><p>—</p><p><strong>Brought to you by:</strong></p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://workos.com/lenny"><strong>WorkOS</strong></a>—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://vanta.com/lenny"><strong>Vanta</strong></a>—Automate compliance, manage risk, and accelerate trust with AI</p><p>—</p><p><strong>Episode transcript: </strong><a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>Archive of all Lenny's Podcast transcripts:</strong> <a target="_blank" href="https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&#38;st=ahz0fj11&#38;dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/yxi4s2w998p1gvtpu4193/AMdNPR8AOw0lMklwtnC0TrQ?rlkey=j06x0nipoti519e0xgm23zsn9&st=ahz0fj11&dl=0</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>Where to find Amol Avasare:</strong></p><p>• X: <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/TheAmolAvasare">https://x.com/TheAmolAvasare</a></p><p>• LinkedIn: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/amolavasare">https://www.linkedin.com/in/amolavasare</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>Where to find Lenny:</strong></p><p>• Newsletter: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com</a></p><p>• X: <a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/lennysan">https://twitter.com/lennysan</a></p><p>• LinkedIn: <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/</a></p><p>—</p><p><strong>In this episode, we cover:</strong></p><p>(00:00) Introduction to Amol and Anthropic’s growth</p><p>(03:15) The story of cold emailing Mike Krieger to get the job</p><p>(08:28) What it’s like leading growth at the fastest-growing company ever</p><p>(10:46) What the growth team actually does at Anthropic</p><p>(12:16) The concept of “success disasters”</p><p>(13:55) Why activation is the biggest challenge in AI products</p><p>(18:05) Improving Mercury’s onboarding experience</p><p>(20:57) The importance of adding the right kind of friction</p><p>(25:10) Anthropic’s org structure</p><p>(27:06) Why Anthropic focuses on big bets over micro-optimizations</p><p>(33:34) Automating growth experiments with Claude (CASH)</p><p>(38:20) How AI is starting to identify what experiments to run</p><p>(41:07) The future of PM, engineering, and design roles</p><p>(47:19) Why you might need <em>more</em> PMs as engineers get more productive</p><p>(51:13) How Amol uses AI to prototype ideas and skip PRDs</p><p>(58:10) Amol’s morning routine: AI analyzes 20 to 25 charts automatically</p><p>(1:03:31) Getting coaching from an AI version of your manager</p><p>(1:06:27) How Anthropic’s focus on coding and B2B drove their success</p><p>(1:12:10) Balancing growth with AI safety as a core mission</p><p>(1:18:09) Advice for thriving in an AI-first future</p><p>(1:22:53) Anthropic’s culture and the “notebook channels” on Slack</p><p>(1:35:12) Failure corner: Shutting down his startup after raising money</p><p>(1:38:25) The traumatic brain injury that changed everything</p><p>(1:46:49) Lightning round</p><p>—</p><p><strong>References: </strong><a target="_blank" href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run">https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-1b-to-19b-growth-run</a></p><p>—</p><p>Production and marketing by <a target="_blank" href="https://penname.co/">https://penname.co/</a>. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email <a target="_blank" href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a>.</p><p>—</p><p><em>Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.</em></p> <br/><br/>To hear more, visit <a href="https://www.lennysnewsletter.com?utm_medium=podcast&#38;utm_campaign=show-notes-no-free-preview-language">www.lennysnewsletter.com</a>