Siva Surendra, CEO of Lyzr, finished 2024 with $0 in revenue. Eighteen months later Lyzr closed Q2 2026 at $12M ARR, growing 20x in nine months at 95% gross margin — and he’s now raising a $100M Series B after beating Palantir on a $2M federal contract. In this interview he reveals the exact numbers: the AI SDR he built to $4M ARR and then shut down, the 76x multiple VCs paid on his Series A, the $50M-to-$250M valuation jump in four months, and his new $1M on-prem AI box product. Why did he shut down a $4M ARR product? 6:21 Hit $4M contracted ARR in 3 months 8:01 Why AI SDRs don’t work 9:58 2 emails beat a 7-email drip How do you grow 20x in 9 months? 10:44 $10K plan → 25 customers in Q1 11:08 Series A led by Rocketship + Accenture 11:41 Largest customer: $2M federal agency What are enterprises actually buying? 13:56 Lyzr Optimus: the $1M AI appliance 17:09 Pricing from $10K to $1M 18:08 32 enterprise customers, 80,000 builders Is $400M too cheap? 19:38 $8M Series A at $50M valuation 20:22 Series A+ at $250M four months later 23:30 “$400M all cash?” — his answer Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NathanLatkawatch?sub_confirmation=1 Subscribe on iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/top-founders/id1023761733 Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3AA9buFn8oxJf8WSDOUks5 Looking for funding? Visit https://founderpath.com/