Block the Noise. Less Is More.
How Decagon became a $1.5B AI unicorn, how Inari scaled to an Amplitude acquisition, and the customer feedback system both teams use to cut the noise and build with clarity.
Welcome to The Startup Stack — where we cut through the noise to bring you the real talk, tactical tools, and startup trends that matter. This week, we’re diving into Jesse Zhang ’s clarity-driven path to scaling Decagon into a $1.5B AI unicorn, founder lessons from building Inari to an Amplitude acquisition — plus a template to help you cut the noise and turn customer conversations into product clarity.
Featuring:
- A path to $1.5B with Decagon’s Jesse Zhang: Execution speed, trusting your timing, and building a high-ambition early team.
- From YC to acquisition with Inari’s Frank Lee : Clean insights over volume, distribution that drives traction, and why markets matter early.
- Customer Feedback Template by Decagon: Capture every signal, connect insights to the right accounts, and keep teams aligned.
The stack is built — let’s get to it!
“You can have an amazing product and nobody will know about it. There’s just so much noise in the market. You can focus on product a little bit more over time after you get a few test customers and validate that the demand is there.” — Frank Lee, Co-founder of Inari
Frank Lee, Co-founder of Inari (acquired by Amplitude), joins Eric Liu , PM at Notion, to share how he built an AI-powered insights product from the ground up — tackling messy customer data, tight iteration loops, and zero outside funding. Frank breaks down how his team improved insight quality, navigated the self-serve vs. sales-led tradeoff, and built a repeatable growth engine through consistent content and community engagement.
After guiding Inari through its acquisition by Amplitude, he now leads AI and agent initiatives there, exploring how product data can power new orchestration workflows.
Three founder lessons from Frank:
- Quality earns trust → Fewer, cleaner, fully cited insights beat noisy volume.
- Distribution drives momentum → Consistent LinkedIn, authentic content, and niche communities fuel early traction.
- Markets matter early → Pick spaces with real budgets, clear owners, and strong tailwinds.
Customer Feedback Template by Decagon: capture every signal, connect the dots, and keep teams aligned.
- One hub for every conversation: AI Meeting Notes centralizes all call insights so nothing gets lost across tools or teams.
- Linked feedback you can trust: Each transcript and summary auto-connects to the right customer, tagging themes and surfacing patterns over time.
- From insight to action: Turn conversations into organized action items that keep product, sales, and support aligned on what customers need next.
“Don’t over-index on what other people say. It’s super easy to get distracted. You have to understand yourself and what your strengths are and your timing and your product. Everyone’s business is quite different.” — Jesse Zhang, Co-founder and CEO of Decagon
In this episode of First Block, we sat down with Jesse Zhang, Co-founder and CEO of Decagon, the leading conversational AI platform empowering every brand to deliver concierge customer experience. In just one year out of stealth, Decagon has become a $1.5B AI unicorn and the agent platform powering support for Duolingo, Oura, ClassPass, Notion, and more.
In conversation with Notion’s Global VP of CX Emma Auscher , Jesse shares:
- Optimize for execution speed early, then shift to long-term thinking
- Don't over-index on advice—understand your own strengths and timing
- Early team composition determines everything that follows
After listening to Jesse’s insights, ask yourself:
- Are you balancing technical excellence with commercial thinking?
- What would change if you optimized purely for execution speed for the next 6 months?
- Are you over-indexing on others' advice instead of understanding your own strengths and timing?
Want more First Block? Hear directly from founders of Lovable, Cursor, Mercor, Supabase, Anthropic, and more.
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Till next week - move fast and stay grounded in customer truth.
Electronic Accessories & Mobile Devices Specialist | Customer Service Focused | Building Brigitte Holds | Reliable, Professional & Growth–Driven
3hVery inspiring — thank you for sharing.
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12hThis is veary interesting and great service and is good for the people around the world thanks for sharing this chep it up you people are doing good work best wishes to each and everyone thair ❤🤝🏽🤝🏽🤝🏽🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
Agents @ Amplitude | Founder @ Inari (acq) | Formerly Dapper Labs, Opendoor, Amazon
15hThanks for having me on! Hopefully other builders learn from my painful mistakes 😄
Global Community Builder for Tech, Web3 & Creative Ecosystems | Growing Communities and Designing Experiences | Exploring the Law in Digital Spaces
16hWhat really stands out here is how Decagon and Inari treated clarity as something they engineered into their process. It wasn’t just about cutting noise but creating simple habits that stopped noise from building up. One practical example I’ve seen work is tying every product decision to a single verified customer signal rather than a collection of assumptions. It forces teams to stay honest. Welldone, I want to read more from you.
Software Development Director
17hLove the emphasis on clean insights, consistent distribution, and choosing markets wisely—these are practical lessons for any founder looking to scale with intention.