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What Rahul Vohra thinks about startups

@rahul-vohra · 24 positions · 0 changes of mind

Founder and chief executive of Superhuman, the email client; previously founder of Rapportive, which he sold to LinkedIn; a professional game designer before that.

Rahul Vohra did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

5 dated positions, 2025, in their own words. Our reading of what Rahul Vohra has said — not written or endorsed by them.

  1. Our readingWondering whether your product will ever be a thing is a dangerous thought, because there is no point at which you would stop second-guessing yourself.

    Their wordsBut the idea that is this never going to be a thing. I think that's a dangerous thought. We we can't start thinking that way because at what point do you stop second guessing yourself?

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 7th of 24 in this recording

  3. Our readingThe best-known brands each stand for one clear thing, so a startup has to occupy a position that is unique, still available, and a reinforcement of its product strategy.

    Their wordsAnd it struck me how the most well-known brands have stood for one clear thing. Like they have a clear position. And so in order for superhuman to be memorable, I believed that we needed to occupy a clear position that was unique and which was available and which reinforced our product strategy.

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 9th of 24 in this recording

    product management

  5. Our readingIncumbents structurally cannot compete on speed, because the scale and entrenched architecture that make them incumbents are what make them slow.

    Their wordsI knew that our competition was not going to be startups. It was incumbents. And I also knew that incumbents generally struggle with speed because by definition they have massive scale and usually entrenched architecture.

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 11th of 24 in this recording

  7. Our readingThe share of users who would be very disappointed to lose your product predicts success far better than net promoter score, and forty percent is the line.

    Their wordsWhat he found is that the companies that struggled to grow almost always had less than 40% very disappointed. Whereas the companies that grew the fastest almost always had more than 40% very disappointed. And this question, this metric is way more predictive of success than something for example like net promoter score.

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 15th of 24 in this recording

  9. Our readingWhich AI features users will love is genuinely unpredictable, and the ones a founder is most confident about are the ones that get used least.

    Their wordsbasically everything I thought would work out well, people use it less than I thought they did. And everything where I was like, I don't know, but let's build the thing. People love that.

    ↗Superhuman's secret to success | Rahul Vohra (CEO and founder)youtube.com 23rd of 24 in this recording