Spenser Skates: How Amplitude Rewired Itself Around AI

Through a bottoms-up experiment phase that triggered hard reorgs; Amplitude rebuilt its analytics roadmap around AI-native teams and dropped SaaS assumptions.

Spenser SkatesguestHarj TaggarhostGarry Tanhost

Dec 3, 202544mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: December 3, 2025
Duration: 44m
Channel: Y Combinator
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Spenser Skates has spent more than a decade building Amplitude from a YC startup into a public company, and in that time, he's had to reinvent himself just as much as the product. Joining the Lightcone pod, he talks through the shift from founder to large-company CEO, the skepticism his team initially had toward AI, and the moment they realized the next wave of analytics would require a full reset. He walks through the hard reorgs, the bottom-up experiments, and the mindset changes that let Amplitude move fast again—and shares what it really takes for a big company to adapt when the ground under the industry moves. 00:00 Intro 03:40 Embracing AI at Amplitude 11:00 Product roadmap, AI native priorities 15:32 Org changes & hierarchy 18:40 “AI killing SaaS”, changing the Amplitude roadmap 23:30 The “features, not companies” debate, advantages for incumbents 32:14 Finding good mentors, hyper focus 38:09 The difference between being a founder vs a big company executive 41:52 Outro Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs

SPEAKERS

Spenser Skates
guest
Harj Taggar
host
Garry Tan
host

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Y Combinator, featuring Spenser Skates and Harj Taggar, Spenser Skates: How Amplitude Rewired Itself Around AI explores inside Amplitude’s Painful, All-In Reinvention As An AI-Native Company Amplitude CEO Spencer Skates describes how the company shifted from deep skepticism about AI to making it a central pillar of its product and org strategy.

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