The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC Exclusive: Mercor Raises $100M at a $2BN Valuation: Scaling to $70M in ARR in 24 Months | 9-9-6: 9AM-9PM - 6 Days Per Week: The Most Intense Culture in Silicon Valley | The Future of Programming, Models and Data with Adarsh Hiremath
Thu, 20 Feb 2025
Adarsh Hiremath is the Co-Founder and CTO @ Mercor, an AI recruitment platform and one of the fastest-growing companies in technology. They have scaled to $70M in ARR in just 24 months. They are famed for working 6 days per week, 9AM to 9PM. All of their founders are Thiel fellows, they are also the youngest unicorn founders ever with the fundraise announced today raising $100M led by Felicis at a $2BN valuation. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: 04:36 How Debating Makes The Best Founders 06:05 Do People Treat You Differently When a Unicorn Founder 10:58 Scaling to $70M ARR in 24 Months 13:42 How Culture Breaks When Scaling So Fast 23:49 The Future of Foundation Models 24:05 OpenAI vs Anthropic 24:32 Data: Synthetic vs Human 27:10 The Future of Programming and AI 28:15 The Impact of AI Tools on Software Development 28:51 Why Software Will Become Commoditised 29:55 Network Effects and Marketplaces 33:13 Raising From Benchmark After a Helicopter Ride 37:30 Quickfire Round: Insights and Reflections
How did Mercor achieve rapid growth and a $2BN valuation?
The round was a hundred million. And the price was? It was at two billion. I think we'll live in a world with many, many models with different use cases. We're already seeing this with a lot of application layer companies where they all have these specialized use cases for how they want to leverage the models. I think being a recruiter is the highest prestige position in any company.
The recruiter is the one who controls the talent inflows and outflows of every company. And pretty much you can gather all you need to know about a company from seeing the talent inflows and outflows. The businesses that succeed in a world where software costs approach zero will be built on network effects.
This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings, and today we have an exclusive. One of the fastest growing companies in Silicon Valley right now, McCore, has closed a $100 million round at a $2 billion valuation led by Felicis. They are exceptional for many reasons. They scaled to $70 million in ARR in just 24 months. They are famed for working six days per week, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
All of their founders are teal fellows. And with this latest round, they are also the youngest unicorn founders ever. Today, I sit down with McCall's co-founder, Adarsh Hayamath. But before we dive in today, here are two fun facts about our newest brand sponsor, Kajabi. First, their customers just crossed a collective $8 billion in total revenue. Wow.
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