#123 - Harry Zhang and Kevin Hale
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Description
Harry Zhang is the cofounder of Lob. Lob makes it possible for enterprises to programmatically send physical mail. They were in the Summer 2013 batch of YC.Kevin Hale is a Partner at YC.Harry is on Twitter @harryzhang and Kevin is @ilikevests.The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon.***Topics00:00 - Intro00:31 - Harry's intro00:41 - What did Lob have when they applied to YC?2:01 - Documentation as an API company3:16 - Where did the insight to create Lob come from?4:26 - Lob's first version and first customer7:26 - Closing their first big customer then signing others12:31 - Did Harry always know Lob would be an API company?14:01 - How long did it take to work up to enterprise customers?15:31 - Pricing19:46 - Creating a product roadmap21:26 - Tradeoffs when building product22:21 - Competing for top engineers as an API company24:31 - Options vs RSUs28:01 - Sales mistakes32:21 - Building out features for enterprise clients34:16 - Why did Lob choose to not vertically integrate?39:31 - How has Harry had to change as a founder over the life of Lob?