Marty Kausas, CEO of Pylon, on how coaching helped him 5.35x ARR
Marty used to think coaching was for bad founders. Then Pylon started to hyperscale. Revenue grew 5.35× and the team scaled to 90 FTEs. He explains what changed his mind about coaching and how his coach helped him scale.
Before Titan, I thought coaching may be a waste of time, but our coach has enabled us to move way, way faster and build the company way, way faster.
Marty wrote about his experience working with a Titan Coach on LinkedIn
See it on LinkedIn →The founder and the company
Who is Marty Kausas?
Marty Kausas is the co-founder and CEO of Pylon, the AI customer support platform for B2B companies. He studied computer science at Purdue, where he helped organize the BoilerMake hackathon. Before Pylon he was a software engineer at Airbnb and a Kleiner Perkins Engineering Fellow. He took Pylon through Y Combinator in Winter 2023.
Who founded Pylon?
Pylon was founded in 2022 by Marty Kausas, Advith Chelikani and Robert Eng. Marty Kausas is the CEO. The company, Pylon Labs, Inc., is based in San Francisco and was part of Y Combinator's Winter 2023 batch.
What is Pylon?
Pylon is a customer support platform built for B2B companies. It puts Slack, Microsoft Teams, email, chat and in-app support in one inbox, with AI agents, a knowledge base and account intelligence on top. More than 1,500 companies use it, including Together AI, Cognition, Temporal and AssemblyAI.
How much funding has Pylon raised?
Pylon has raised $51 million. Andreessen Horowitz led the $17 million Series A in August 2024 and co-led the $31 million Series B with Bain Capital Ventures in August 2025. General Catalyst led the seed round in 2023.
Does Marty Kausas work with an executive coach?
Yes. Marty Kausas works with an executive coach from Titan, which matches Series A to C founders with coaches who have built or coached companies at scale. In his Titan interview he says he once thought coaching might be a waste of time. He now credits it with helping Pylon move faster, through a year of 5.35× ARR growth.
From the conversation
Why did you start looking for a coach?
As the company started to hyperscale, we just had so many problems to deal with. We realized we need someone who's going to help us answer some of these questions without having to invent the solution ourselves.
How did you choose your coach?
We spoke to a couple of coaches during the matchmaking process, and Mark really stood out. We immediately just sensed he was a no-bullshit type of person, and our personality is very much like that. We just want direct answers.
What did the work start with?
I have 20, maybe 30 at this point, people directly reporting to me. Mark combed through my calendar with me and he's like, you need to get rid of these, you need to get rid of these, and helped me reprioritize the right things to work on.
Why do you trust him?
He's just done it before. He's built companies before. He's managed sales teams before. Sold products.
What would you tell a founder considering it?
Before Titan, I thought coaching may be a waste of time. Now with Mark, our coach, he has enabled us to move way, way faster and build the company way, way faster.
Full transcript
Marty Kausas, Co-Founder and CEO of Pylon, in conversation with Titan. Lightly edited for clarity.
What Pylon is building
My name is Marty Kausas. I'm the co-founder and CEO of Pylon, and we are building the first AI customer support platform built for B2B. Getting to a billion dollars in revenue is a completely different ballgame than, hey, get to a hundred million or fifty. So we're constantly paranoid about how do we get to the next milestone.
Why hyperscale required support
As the company started to hyperscale, we just had so many problems to deal with. We just realized we need someone who's going to help us answer some of these questions without having to invent the solution ourselves.
Why Mark stood out
So we spoke to a couple coaches during the matchmaking process, and Mark really stood out. We immediately just sensed he was a no-bullshit type of person, and our personality is very much like that. We just want direct answers. We want to just be like, hey, here's a problem. Can I offload some of this brainpower of figuring this out, and can you help me think through it?
How Mark reprioritized work
I have no time. I have 20, maybe 30 at this point, people directly reporting to me. Mark combed through my calendar with me, and he's like, you need to get rid of these. You need to get rid of these and help me reprioritize the right things to work on.
Mark feels really trustworthy to us because he's just done it before. He's built companies before. He's managed sales teams before. He's sold products.
Sometimes as a founder, it's so hard because you have a million things that you need to be doing, and then he can come in and actually be like, okay, I see that this is your priority, but you're doing these things instead. How can we readjust how you're thinking about things and make sure you hit the things that matter?
What the future looks like
The future is bright. We have 1,300 customers right now. Our net retention is 160%, which is unheard of, and this year we're targeting 4x growth as well. The long-term vision for Pylon is just getting better every single day. All I can say is you guys nailed the coach. That means we're happy.
How coaching changed his view
Before Titan, I thought coaching may be a waste of time. Now with Mark, our coach, he has enabled us to move way, way faster and build the company way, way faster.
Marty Kausas and Pylon: quick facts
| Role | Co-founder and CEO, Pylon |
|---|---|
| Company founded | 2022, San Francisco; Y Combinator W23 |
| Co-founders | Advith Chelikani, Robert Eng |
| Education | BS in computer science, Purdue University (2018) |
| Previously | Software engineer, Airbnb (2018 to 2020); Kleiner Perkins Engineering Fellow |
| Recognition | Forbes 30 Under 30, AI (2026) |
| Total raised | $51 million |
| Latest round | $31 million Series B (August 2025) |
| Investors | Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, General Catalyst, Y Combinator |
| Links | LinkedIn · usepylon.com · Crunchbase |