Grammarly CEO Rahul Roy-Chowdhury: Trust, AI, and the future of work
New AI products are rapidly changing the landscape for businesses. This is especially true for the writing tool Grammarly. The $13 billion dollar software company’s CEO Rahul Roy-Chowdhury has taken the helm in the midst of a profound disruption. Host Jeff Berman talks to Rahul about how his time at Google helped prepare him for this moment, why he’s doubling down on building trust with customers, and how he thinks AI will shape the future of work.
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#160 CEO Grammarly, Rahul Roy-Chowdhury: Better, Not More
Guest: Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, CEO of Grammarly
Driven by generative tools like ChatGPT, artificial intelligence is hot — but Grammarly CEO Rahul Roy-Chowdhury wishes that “AI” stood for something else: “Augmented Intelligence.” A longtime Googler and lifelong believer in using technology to make peoples’ lives better at scale, Roy-Chowdhury now leads a company well-positioned to do exactly that. “In the early days, Grammarly was all about the rules of language,” he says. “Now, with generative AI, we can actually help people across a much broader swath of communication tasks.”
In this episode, Rahul and Joubin discuss digital distraction, responsible AI, John Oliver, Ali Ghodsi, the hype cycle, fragmentation, being kind to yourself, Amp It Up, intentional strategy, candid dialogue, Google Chrome, and Dancing with the Butterfly.
In this episode, we cover:
Growing up in India (01:05)
Meaningful, impactful work (07:12)
The potential of AI (13:09)
Invisible AI (19:53)
Would Grammarly go public? (23:51)
What drives the business (28:19)
Too many emails (31:05)
Being an introvert CEO (35:11)
How Rahul got the top job (37:36)
Insecurity (39:48)
Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman (41:57)
Rahul’s decision-making framework (45:40)
“I deprecated the thing I built” (54:12)
The dino game (56:28)
The book on Rahul’s desk (59:49)
Who Grammarly is hiring and what “grit” means to Rahul (01:01:06)
Links:
Connect with RahulLinkedIn
Connect with JoubinTwitter
LinkedIn
Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
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This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
Grammarly CEO Rahul Roy-Chowdhury on the future of user-centric language tools | E1817
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Today’s show:
Grammarly CEO Rahul Roy-Chowdhury joins Jason to discuss his journey to CEO (15:28), Grammarly’s product features (26:20), AI integrations (32:28), and much more!
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Time stamps:
(0:00) Grammarly CEO Rahul Roy-Chowdhury joins Jason
(4:19) Rahul's start in tech and his time on the Google Chrome team.
(8:57) CLA - Get started with CLA's CPAs, consultants, and wealth advisors now at https://claconnect.com/tech
(10:24) The Chrome team and Chrome OS
(15:28) Journey to Grammarly CEO
(19:29) Exploring applications and platforms for Grammarly
(25:05) LinkSquares - The go-to for all your legal needs, learn more at https://linksquares.com/twist
(26:20) The product roadmap and what draws people into Grammarly
(35:04) Grammarly's business and enterprise offerings
(37:32) Codecademy - Try Codecademy Pro FREE for 14 days at http://codecademy.com/TWiST
(38:53) Product Features: Knowledge Share and Grammarly Goals
(42:28) The addition of Grammarly Go and the LLM powering it
(47:12) Controversial product features
(54:17) When to use the native desktop application and extensions
(57:13) Future integration of AI and the path ahead
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