#123 - Harry Zhang and Kevin Hale

About this episode

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/harryzhang">Harry Zhang</a> is the cofounder of <a href="https://lob.com">Lob</a>. Lob makes it possible for enterprises to programmatically send physical mail. They were in the Summer 2013 batch of YC.<br><br><a href="https://twitter.com/ilikevests">Kevin Hale</a> is a Partner at YC.<br><br>Harry is on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/harryzhang">@harryzhang</a> and Kevin is <a href="https://twitter.com/ilikevests">@ilikevests</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/craigcannon">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics</b><br><br>00:00 - Intro<br><br>00:31 - Harry's intro<br><br>00:41 - What did Lob have when they applied to YC?<br><br>2:01 - Documentation as an API company<br><br>3:16 - Where did the insight to create Lob come from?<br><br>4:26 - Lob's first version and first customer<br><br>7:26 - Closing their first big customer then signing others<br><br>12:31 - Did Harry always know Lob would be an API company?<br><br>14:01 - How long did it take to work up to enterprise customers?<br><br>15:31 - Pricing<br><br>19:46 - Creating a product roadmap<br><br>21:26 - Tradeoffs when building product<br><br>22:21 - Competing for top engineers as an API company<br><br>24:31 - Options vs RSUs<br><br>28:01 - Sales mistakes<br><br>32:21 - Building out features for enterprise clients<br><br>34:16 - Why did Lob choose to not vertically integrate?<br><br>39:31 - How has Harry had to change as a founder over the life of Lob?<br></p>