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Josh Miller is the CEO and co-founder of The Browser Company, where he helped build Arc, my go-to web browser. In today\u2019s episode, we get an inside look at the unique structure and values of The Browser Company and how their company culture has helped them land some of the best talent in tech. Josh shares ways that his company embraces experimentation, including their \u201coptimizing for feelings\u201d approach to building, and explains why extreme transparency is at the forefront of everything they do.

Special invite link to skip the waitlist: https://arc.net/gift/lenny

Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/competing-with-giants-an-inside-look-at-how-the-browser-company-builds-product-josh-miller-ceo/#transcript

Where to find Josh Miller:

\u2022 Twitter: https://twitter.com/joshm

\u2022 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-miller-b31259106/

Where to find Lenny:

\u2022 Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

\u2022 Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

\u2022 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

Referenced:

\u2022 Early access to Arc: https://arc.net/gift/lenny

\u2022 The Browser Company: https://thebrowser.company/

\u2022 Arc: https://arc.net/

\u2022 Hursh Agrawal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hurshagrawal/

\u2022 Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/

\u2022 Scott Belsky on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbelsky/

\u2022 Notes on Roadtrips: https://thebrowser.company/values/

\u2022 Shahed Khan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/_shahedk

\u2022 Paper by FiftyThree:\xa0 https://www.hellobrio.com/blog/digital-drawing-paper-fiftythree

\u2022 Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/

\u2022 Peter Vidani on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pter

\u2022 The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/

\u2022 Ellis Hamburger on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellishamburger/

\u2022 Airbnb\u2019s Snow White project: https://uxdesign.cc/how-airbnb-proved-that-storytelling-is-the-most-important-skill-in-design-15d04ac71039

\u2022 General Magic: https://www.generalmagicthemovie.com/

\u2022 Linear: https://linear.app/

\u2022 Raycast: https://www.raycast.com/

\u2022 Cron: https://cron.com/

\u2022 Thrive Capital: https://thrivecap.com/

\u2022 Tuple: https://tuple.app/

\u2022 Figma: https://www.figma.com/

\u2022 Harold and the Purple Crayon: https://www.amazon.com/Harold-Purple-Crayon-Crockett-Johnson/dp/0062086529

\u2022 Seeing Is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees: https://www.amazon.com/Seeing-Forgetting-Name-Thing-Sees/dp/0520256093/

\u2022 God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State: https://www.amazon.com/God-Save-Texas-Journey-State/dp/0525520104

\u2022 The Last of Us on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-last-of-us

\u2022 Adam Curtis documentaries on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLStWlBRkr0N_aYjPmbrrjm_rsstpkUBLc

\u2022 Notion: https://www.notion.so/

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Josh\u2019s background

(03:56) Arc and the metrics they use to track growth

(04:42) Arc\u2019s retention numbers

(08:22) Josh\u2019s product-building philosophy and why he believes in optimizing for feelings

(18:57) How The Browser Company\u2019s values create a culture that allows them to ship so quickly

(22:46) The \u201cNotes on Roadtrips\u201d doc about values

(27:48) How Josh is able to hire such amazing talent

(37:29) The good and bad of building in public

(45:16) Some of the odd teams at The Browser Company and why Josh calls it a prototype-driven culture

(46:01) The membership team

(48:07) The storytelling team

(52:00) Why The Browser Company doesn\u2019t have traditional PMs

(54:07) A case for adding PMs

(57:32) The role of data, even in a company that optimizes for feelings

(58:30) Airbnb\u2019s Snow White project

(1:02:14) How impactful moments in Josh\u2019s life influenced values at The Browser Company

(1:03:08) How the film General Magic has inspired Josh

(1:04:32) The value of novel names

(1:06:50) Why The Browser Company\u2019s approach works for Arc

(1:12:47) Why you need to nail latency and why Josh loves Tupl

(1:14:33) The shift to cloud computing and the ultimate vision at The Browser Company

(1:23:15) Lightning round

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.