ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Every founder I know is asking the same question: "How should we actually implement AI across our company?"
The reality is that every playbook will require customization, but there are clear patterns beginning to emerge.
In this episode, Chetan Narain, Cofounder of Pepper, joins me and my colleague, Interplay Senior Partner Kevin Tung, to share how Pepper is integrating AI across its products and organization - and the lessons they've learned along the way.
We discuss:
• Where vertical SaaS ends and vertical AI begins
• AI agents and guardrails
• Organizational redesign
• How to move fast without creating chaos
If you're building a company and thinking beyond AI features toward AI transformation, I think you'll enjoy this conversation.
⏱️ Chapter Markers:
00:00 — Intro — Implementing AI across your company and why it matters now
01:23 — Where vertical SaaS ends and vertical AI begins: dashboards → autonomous agents
03:36 — Pepper 101: the $1T food distribution opportunity
05:37 — Pricing agents: moving from recommendations to action
08:42 — Trust, autonomy, and guardrails for mission-critical workflows
09:33 — ROI you can prove: GP lift and attribution clarity
11:25 — Experiments that broke: letting non-tech teams ship code
14:21 — Pepper's "product build system": AI-reviewed PRDs and prototypes
19:22 — Organizational design: single-threaded ownership vs. diffusion
23:03 — Speed traps: building 4 prototypes ≠ faster outcomes
24:22 — Kevin Tung on logging mistakes and compounding intelligence
26:10 — A/B testing as a sandboxed guardrail
27:02 — Chetan's path: Google PM to first PM of Uber Eats
29:37 — COVID pivot: Pepper Pantry hits $10M run rate in a week
32:57 — Distributor-first model: white-labeled apps and trust
34:33 — If king for a day: accelerating tech adoption in food
36:31 — Early adopters and tailwinds across 20k+ distributors
38:11 — Wrap and takeaways
Links:
• Chetan Narain: LinkedIn
