The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
20VC: The Startup Adding $1M ARR Every Week | Competing Against OpenAI's Codex and Claude Code: Who Wins | Why Gemini is Failing and GPT-5 Is Winning | Do Margins Matter in a World of AI | The Ugly Truth About AI Coding with Zach Lloyd, Warp
17 Oct 2025
Zach Lloyd is the Founder and CEO of Warp, the next-generation developer terminal reinventing how engineers build and collaborate. Warp has raised over $70M from top-tier investors including Sequoia Capital, GV, Dylan Field, and Elad Gil. Before founding Warp, Zach was Principal Engineer at Google, where he led development of Google Docs, and later served as CTO at Time. He’s one of the most respected engineering minds redefining the future of developer tools. AGENDA: 04:14 Biggest Product Lessons from Rewriting Google Sheets 07:10 Why I Would Short Google: Leadership and AI Strategy 09:55 Comparing AI Models: GPT, Claude, and Gemini: Who Wins and Loses 17:04 Do Margins Matter in AI? 24:57 Adding $1M in ARR Every Week: Is Triple, Triple, Double, Double Dead? 33:58 How to Build Defensibility in a World of AI? 43:05 OpenAI vs Anthropic: Who Wins and Why? 44:25 Biggest Fundraising Lessons Raising from Sequoia, Elad Gil and GV 50:56 Why Sequoia are the Best VC 53:51 What Every Founder Gets Wrong in Fundraising 01:01:30 Quick Fire Questions and Final Thoughts
Full Episode
This is 20VC with me, Harry Stebbings. Now, I am so excited for the show today. Today was probably one of the most, I don't know how to say it, maybe loose discussions that we've ever had. There was no structure to this one for sure. And it was one of the most fun shows, by the way, I've ever done. Zach, the guest, was incredible. So time for the guest intro. Zach Lloyd, founder and CEO of Warp.
They are adding a million of net new ARR every single week. They are the next generation developer terminal, reinventing how engineers build and collaborate. They've raised over $70 million from the likes of Sequoia, GV, Dylan Field, Elad Gil, and even the legend that is Marc Benioff. Now, before founding Warp, Zach was a principal engineer at Google, where he led development of Google Docs.
I mean, Google Docs. Docs, what a hero. As I said, Zach was one of the most fun guests I've ever had on the show. And he really put up with a lot of shit from me in this episode. And so I cannot wait to hear your thoughts. Let me know your feedback. Harry at 20vc.com. But before we dive into the show today, on this show, we care about velocity.
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