Guillermo Rauch is the co-founder and CEO of Vercel, the company behind Next.js, and previously created the widely-used Socket.io library. In this special episode, recorded live in front of an audience, Guillermo joins Immad Akhund and Raj Suri for an open Q&A covering pivots, ethics, investors, and the future of work in the age of AI.

What you'll learn:

The difference between a "lowercase p" pivot (refining focus) and an "uppercase P" pivot (starting over) — and how to know which one you need
How to build an ethical framework for operating in an industry full of shortcuts and noise
How to extract real signal from investors without letting them drive your roadmap
Real pivot stories from Presto (restaurant tablets to voice AI), Lyft (carpooling to peer-to-peer ride-hailing), and Mercury's early product-market-fit signal
Why blaming distribution is often easier than blaming the product — and why that's a trap
How founders can get their teams to think about prioritization the way they do
How Mercury created early demand by deliberately recruiting a broad, vocal set of seed investors
What "the future of work" looks like when your team's job shifts from producing outcomes directly to building the systems that produce them
How growing up outside Silicon Valley shaped each panelist's belief that they could build something from scratch

Chapters:

(0:00) Lowercase p vs. uppercase P pivots

(1:05) Q&A begins

(1:23) Building an ethical framework in Silicon Valley

(4:38) Balancing customer signal vs. investor advice

(9:53) Pivot stories: Presto, Lyft, and Mercury's obvious PMF moment

(15:34) Why founders blame distribution instead of the product

(16:08) Getting your team to think about prioritization like you do

(18:21) How Mercury created early demand with 60 seed investors

(19:48) The future of work: agents, harnesses, and factories of output

(24:25) Growing up outside the Valley: mentors and self-belief

(28:04) Closing