Feldman: Experience matters far more than naivety in complex hardware startups
Andrew Feldman · Andrew Feldman, Cerebras Co-Founder and CEO: The AI Chip Wars & The Plan to Break Nvidia's Dominance · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Mar 24, 2025 · at 1:09:40
Andrew Feldman, co-founder and CEO of AI chip maker Cerebras, reflects on his journey founding five startups and addresses whether serial entrepreneur experience provides a tangible edge.
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“I think if you are in a business in which running a business is a benefit, then experience matters a great deal. I think if you are in a business in which you look like Your customer. There was a reason why social, social networks were started by people right out of college or in college, because dating is top of their mind, right? I mean, that, that, that's, they look like their customers. And that was more important than knowing anything about running a business. And so in that environment, it will certainly select for people who are of the demographic that their customers are. They know that backwards and forwards. But if you want to have a business that has manufacturing in it, that has a supply chain, That has you managing hundreds or thousands of engineers to a timeline, to a schedule. I don't think anybody would turn around your statement and with a straight face say, you know, what I'm looking for is an engineering leader with no experience, right? Well, no, and I don't want somebody who's led a team of four or 500 who has experienced the challenges of growth. What I'm looking for is somebody with no experience.”
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