Jason M. Lemkin says companies need to refound themselves for AI: decide what you'd build today, move twice as fast, and boost productivity without hiring more. The bar is now 50% growth at 500 million in revenue.
May 29, 2025
"50% at 500 million"
That's what Marc Benioff said. Most of you are below the scale of Salesforce and Dropbox, so go back, sit with your team and say, what would we build today and how can we do it twice as fast and just go find a frigging way to build it. Whether it's putting a little bit of your team in a separate group, right? Having. Whether that works or not, whether it's dropping some stuff, whether it's measuring it for. I don't have all the answers. But instead of fighting the 2023 battle, figure out what you would build today. Look at all the competitors, all the industry. Look where the puck's going and find a way to refound your company. That's Mojo. And if you have a good team, a lot of them will get it. It turns out they'll get excited about this meeting. A lot of the good folks will be like, yeah, let's refound this frigger in 2025. Yeah, maybe growth slowed to 40%, but let's build what the market wants today, not be a Debbie Downer about how it's changed. And maybe the mediocre folks in your team will grumble and maybe they could find another place to work. I don't know. But that's my view today. I want to break now. There's still a 10x ARR club. Be in it. Find it. VC is all about AI. We can talk a little bit more about this tomorrow if you're not in it. IPOs are back. Chime. Others are all coming. The bar is 50% at 500 million, so we're running out of time on this beast. We can do some more tomorrow. PE may not bail us out and we're all going to do the same with the same amount of headcount. Maybe this is the last point I do want to break. We all have to work harder. We have to be twice as productive. We have to be AI first. And I'll tell you one last thing. Everybody's freezing. Headcount, everyone. It doesn't mean they're not hiring. It means they're moving on from underproductive people through voluntary and involuntary attrition. And they're bringing new people. But this vibe from Duolingo, do it first with AI and do it second with an upgrade. This is Everybody's vibe on WhatsApp. And behind closed doors, everyone's going to do more, but you can't do more with. You don't get 50% headcount anymore. So not only do you have to do twice as much. Not only you have two to ten times more competitors, but you're going to have to do it with the same headcount. You're going to have to do it with the same headcount.
