Head of Growth (Anthropic): “Claude is growing itself at this point” | Amol Avasare
Source
Lenny Rachitsky
Author
Lenny Rachitsky
Date
Why it matters
Shows how Anthropic operationalizes Claude internally—automating growth experiments (CASH), rethinking PM-to-engineer ratios as agents raise productivity, and using Cowork to surface team misalignment—offering concrete patterns for teams building AI-native workflows.
Key quotes
“linear charts are just not cool.
Everything is log linear.
Just show me it log linear scale.”
Amol Avasare
“Historically, we were very much the smallest, least well-funded player in this space.
We didn't have the free cash flow or the distribution of a meta or Google.
We didn't have the first mover advantage of an open AI.”
Amol Avasare
“you need to understand that 50, 60, 70% of how you operate in the past just throw it out the door.”
Amol Avasare
“we are very comfortable for going
metric impact in order to prioritize safety in order to protect our brand in order to
hold a high quality bar and to maintain a great user experience.”
Amol Avasare
“the talent density is like, I feel like I'm playing for
like real Madrid at times”
Amol Avasare
Chapters
00:00Introduction to Amol and Anthropic's growth
03:15Cold emailing Mike Krieger to get the job
08:28Leading growth at the fastest-growing company ever
10:46What the growth team actually does
12:16The concept of 'success disasters'
13:55Why activation is the biggest challenge in AI products
18:05Improving Mercury's onboarding experience
20:57Adding the right kind of friction
25:10Anthropic's org structure
27:06Big bets over micro-optimizations
33:34Automating growth experiments with Claude (CASH)
38:20AI identifying what experiments to run
41:07The future of PM, engineering, and design roles
47:19Why you might need more PMs as engineers get productive
51:13Using AI to prototype and skip PRDs
58:10Morning routine: AI analyzes 20-25 charts
1:03:31Coaching from an AI version of your manager
1:06:27How coding and B2B focus drove success
1:12:10Balancing growth with AI safety
1:18:09Advice for thriving in an AI-first future
1:22:53Anthropic's culture and notebook channels
1:35:12Failure corner: Shutting down his startup
1:38:25The traumatic brain injury that changed everything
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