Aaron is the co-founder and CEO of Alex AI, building AI recruiting agents. He went from an introverted coder to running an org of 60 in two years. His framing: pre-PMF the product is the product, post-PMF the company is.
Pre-PMF, your product is what matters. Post-PMF, your people are what matter.
Aaron wrote about his experience working with a Titan Coach on LinkedIn
See it on LinkedIn →Answers are verbatim from the recorded interview.
It was pretty clear that there was a delta in the knowledge that I had and the knowledge that I needed to get to that next stage. I was an introverted coder just a couple of years ago, and to go from that to managing an org of 60 people is no simple delta to cover.
My bar was a lot of what we try to repeat with Y Combinator, where you get this partner that's built this incredible startup from nothing to billions of dollars. My coach has been a great way to replicate that kind of phenomenon for me.
I use and abuse my coach. Some amount of it is founder therapy, and the other amount of it is just getting super tactical.
Since starting coaching, my communication style has changed drastically. When you get to 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 people, you have to be a lot more intentional with your style of communication.
Pre-PMF, your product is what matters. Post-PMF, the company is the product — your people are your product. Having that mindset shift has been incredibly important for us.
Aaron Wang, Co-Founder and CEO of Alex AI, in conversation with Titan. Lightly edited for clarity.
Hey, I'm Aaron, co-founder and CEO of Alex AI. We build AI recruiting agents for some of the largest employers in the world. My parents came to the United States with nothing but the English dictionary. My mom went overnight from being a doctor in China to a waitress busing here in a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco. And it wasn't until she had met a recruiter having a one-on-one conversation that that recruiter found out, wow, you're actually really well educated. And it was through that conversation that unlocked a whole new world of opportunity for her. Our job at Alex AI is to give every candidate that same experience, to give everyone a voice and for employees to interview everyone and ultimately hire the best people.
We launched about two years ago out of YC in 2024. At the time, it was just me and my co-founder and our boxers in a living room in San Francisco, coding our butts off. And the last week or so of Y Combinator is when we signed our first deal. And the week after, we signed a 60K ARR deal. And the week after, 120K ARR deal. We just kept doubling and doubling until we realized we might have something here.
I first started thinking about getting a coach when it was pretty clear that there was a delta in the knowledge that I had and the knowledge that I needed to get to that next stage. I was an introverted coder just a couple of years ago. And to go from that to managing an org of 60 people is no simple delta to cover.
Before we started with Titan, my bar for what a coach would look like is a lot of what we try to repeat with Y Combinator, where you get this partner that's built this incredible startup from nothing to billions of dollars. My coach has been a great way to replicate that kind of phenomenon for me. I've got pretty high expectations, but Titan's met them. So that's great. I use and abuse my coach, I'd say. My coach and I talk pretty often. And I think some amount of it is founder therapy. And I think the other amount of it is just getting super tactical.
Since starting coaching, my communication style has changed drastically. When you get to 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 people, you have to be a lot more intentional with your style of communication. Pre-PMF, your product is what matters. And post-PMF, the company is the product. Your people are your product. And so having that mindset shift has been incredibly important for us. My coach has been super helpful in getting us from a small company in terms of revenue and employees to something quite sizable. In just the past two years since we've launched, we've grown employee base from two to over 50. We've increased revenue the first year, 5x. This past year, another 5x. We've still got six months to go left in the year. It's been a crazy, crazy fast two years. And there's a lot more road ahead of us than there is behind.
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