Granola paused hiring deep LLM experts until reaching product-market fit
Chris Pedregal · How to Build a Beloved AI Product - Granola CEO Chris Pedregal · Aug 21, 2025 · at 15:19
Chris Pedregal, co-founder and CEO of Granola, explains why the company stopped recruiting specialized AI/LLM researchers during its early stage.
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“And in, in those early phases, like when I was looking for a co-founder, I met Sam, but I was also, I met all the LLM experts from Imperial and Oxford and Cambridge. Because I thought that was DNA we would need on day one. And as Sam and I started prototyping, we realized actually there wouldn't be much for that person to do until we figure out product market fit, until we maxed out on what like the base model, like the off the shelf models could do. And then we would need that expertise. And then we stopped looking for that person.”
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