Jason Lemkin argues Google needed hyper-aggressive mode to catch up in AI, with Sergey Brin restoring that mindset. He contrasts Google's integrated AI overviews with OpenAI's app-driven approach, and explains how to spot a team in that mode: universal management urgency and measurable velocity.
Jason M. Lemkin.
December 15, 2025.
When they're not in hyper aggressive mode. I don't want to say I lose confidence in case anyone's watching any, but I lose confidence because you're just not going to get anywhere. I need to see, especially today when folks are falling behind in AI, right, when you have companies at scale falling behind. I don't care about your talk, I don't want to hear about your pilot. I want to smell that your team is in hyper aggressive mode. If it is, I think you can come back. What if I don't smell it? You have no chance.
What are signs or smells that suggest hyper aggressive taste? Founders will be listening to this going the management team.
There's a tension in the management team to move faster. Every single person in the management team says we are shipping product faster, I am selling harder, I'm getting on the road more, I am generating more leads. Every single person on your management team is sweating it and they're executing faster. You can just see they come to your board meeting, they come to whatever and there is velocity in every area. We just don't. You. How many times do you truly see velocity increase in a board meeting? Not that common, right? That's hyper aggressive mode. Everyone is aligned on this somehow. This makes a great CEO. This is very hard for co to do. Everything is anti inertia, everything slows down even in an early stage startup, right? And then when you come in and everyone's sweating and they're like, you know, we shipped twice the story points, twice the software as last quarter and we're still falling behind and I'm pissed. But these days in the area of great job, I just don't see it enough. And that's what you need. You need to make your team hyper aggressive. It is an unnatural state. Unnatural.
If I push you both, who will win? The consumer? Is it OpenAI and the app rollout that they are clearly going to do over the next few years or will Google retain the consumer, the search layer and the app layer that they have today?
I'm going to maybe be trite, but I think Sergey brought back hyper aggressiveness to Google. He's clear in the interviews. He just said, I came in, we weren't even allowed to use our own tools. We weren't allowed to use our own coding tools, we weren't allowed to use our own chips. He's like, I got rid of that in a week. I heard arguments. I got rid of it in a week. That's what you need. Sergey had to come. As great as the leadership is, I think Sergey had to come back and make it hyper aggressive. I don't think it was the only point but you need that. You need that and most of the startups that I see that aren't found to run are unable to get back to hyper aggressive mode. It is impossible for them. I'm not saying it hasn't happened with Satya, but look at our how many folks in your portfolio without a founder can switch into hyper aggressive Note so.
You'Re saying Google over I have to.
This is a 20 VCAT.
This is Will Google retain the consumer the app suite that they have or will OpenAI continue to eat more and more and more of Google's core business and we will see a much more shared landscape?
Listen, I think the same thing most people on X do. I think the Google products are great. I use it every day. I use AI. In fact I don't even care whether I use AI overviews or ChatGPT or Anthropic. But I actually prefer AI overviews because I don't have to leave Google. Cool.
