VDR Official X
February 9, 2026
First Round Capital • Parag Agrawal is the co-founder and CEO of Parallel, a startup building search infrastructure for the web’s second user: AIs. Before launching Parallel, Parag spent over a decade at Twitter, where he served as CTO and later CEO during a period of intense transformation, as well as public scrutiny. In this episode, Parag shares what he learned from his time at Twitter, why the web must evolve to serve AI at massive scale, how Parallel is tackling “deep research” challenges by prioritizing accuracy over speed, and the design choices that make their APIs uniquely agent-friendly. We also discuss: • Why Parallel designs for AI as the primary customer • Lessons from 11 years at Twitter and applying them to a startup • Potential business models to keep the web open for AI • Hiring philosophy: balancing high potential and experienced talent • The evolving role of engineers in an AI-assisted world • Why “agents” are finally becoming useful in production • And much more… References: • Clay: https://www.clay.com/ • Index Ventures: https://www.indexventures.com/ • Josh Kopelman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkopelman/ • KLA: https://www.kla.com/ • OpenAI: https://openai.com/ • Parallel: https://parallel.ai/ • Patrick Collison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/ • Stripe: https://stripe.com/ Where to find Parag: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paragagr/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/paraga Where to find Todd: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/tjack Where to find First Round Capital: • Website: https://firstround.com/ • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ • X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: (1:26) Founding Parallel with an AI-first mission (3:23) From Twitter CTO/CEO to startup founder (6:20) What the AI era spells for companies (7:58) The CEO to founder pipeline (11:18) Reflections on Twitter’s transformation (17:48) How Parallel was born (22:31) Early use cases for Parallel (31:42) How has Parallel’s ICP changed? (34:37) AI’s impact on competitor dynamics (36:06) When should founders launch? (37:43) Parag’s fundraising framework (40:14) Building a high-impact engineering team (44:49) Counterproductive uses of AI (47:35) How will the software engineer role evolve? (49:10) How are Parallel’s customers using AI? (53:27) Defining agents in 2025 (55:02) Parallel’s long-term vision (1:03:43) Parag’s growth as a founder
Content Summary
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Summary
1. The Shift Toward AI-Centric Web Infrastructure
2. Prioritizing High-Fidelity Accuracy Over Speed
3. Economic Incentives for a Permissionless Data Market
Knowledge Snap
Trend 1: AI-First Web Architecture
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Video Title
00:18 - 02:23
The founder discusses a new mission to build infrastructure for the second user of the web.
06:27 - 08:33
The company chose an approach where the AI is the primary customer of their service.
00:18 - 02:23
The vision assumes that every business on the web will eventually be an agent.
Trend 2: Quality-Centric Intelligence
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Video Title
22:37 - 24:39
The first use cases involve repetitive work that benefits from high-quality AI processing.
23:52 - 25:52
The team decided to prioritize accuracy and quality over speed for their system.
33:36 - 35:39
Quality is the primary value proposition, while price remains a secondary consideration for customers.
Trend 3: The Permissionless Data Ethos
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Video Title
14:34 - 16:38
The speaker notes that everyone should be able to get connected in a permissionless way.
15:11 - 17:12
Open access creates magic when individuals can connect and communicate without barriers.
15:36 - 17:37
The goal is to maintain a free market where everyone has access to information.
Trend 4: Strategic Vendor Positioning
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Video Title
28:31 - 30:35
Early partnerships are described as co-creation rather than standard vendor relationships.
38:46 - 40:49
The speaker does not worry about hyperscalers because the opportunity for everyone is massive.
36:43 - 38:46
The company made an intentional decision to maintain flexibility during their initial launch.
Trend 5: Outcome-Based Engineering
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Video Title
40:56 - 42:59
The hiring philosophy at the startup focuses on bringing together potential and experience.
43:19 - 45:25
The company currently operates without any formal hierarchy or defined roles for its team.
47:41 - 49:47
What to build will become more important than the technical details of how to build it.
Trend 6: Open Web Economics
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Video Title
58:21 - 01:00:23
The speaker addresses the economics of a future web populated by various AI agents.
59:59 - 01:02:04
The growth of the market allows for more openness instead of creating digital gates.
01:02:34 - 01:04:36
The goal is to build an open marketplace where participants share a common vision.
The Strategic Evolution of Parallel Search Infrastructure
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🌱
Founding New Contexts
02:16 - 04:20
Parag reflects on the transition from leading Twitter to establishing a new search venture in 2024.
🧠
Unlearning Legacy Infrastructure
04:27 - 06:27
The leadership journey involves discarding old practices to adapt to the speed of modern AI development.
🤖
Shifting Customer Paradigms
18:47 - 20:49
Parallel defines its primary customer as an artificial intelligence rather than a human user.
🌐
Visualizing Agent Agency
18:53 - 20:55
A future web is envisioned where every business operates through its own dedicated AI agent.
📊
Refining Ground Truth
26:06 - 28:06
Deep research tasks reveal that existing benchmarks and data sets often require comparative quality analysis.
🤝
Co-creating Industry Benchmarks
28:31 - 30:35
Strategic partnerships with forward-thinking companies help define accuracy limits for structured information extraction.
🛠️
Integrating Web Tooling
57:27 - 59:29
Software expectations are shifting toward tools that possess inherent access to the open web.
💰
Architecting Market Mechanics
01:02:34 - 01:04:36
Long-term goals focus on creating open marketplaces with economic incentives for publishing content for AI.
Learning Pathway for Building AI-First Search Infrastructure
| Stage | Videos |
|---|---|
1. Navigating Public Scrutiny | co-founder and CEO of Parallel, a startup building search infrastructure for the web’s second user: AIs. Before launching Parallel, Parag spent over a decade at Twitter, where he served as CTO and later CEO during a period of intense transformation, as well as public scrutiny. In this episode, Parag shares what he learned from his time at Twitter, why the web must evolve to serve AI at massive scale, how Parallel is tackling “deep research” challenges by prioritizing accuracy over speed, and the design choices that make their APIs uniquely agent-friendly. We also discuss: • Why Parallel designs for AI as the primary customer • Lessons from 11 years at Twitter and applying them to a startup • Potential business models to keep the web open for AI • Hiring philosophy: balancing high potential and experienced talent • The evolving role of engineers in an AI-assisted world • Why “agents” are finally becoming useful in production • And much more… References: • Clay: https://www.clay.com/ • Index Ventures: https://www.indexventures.com/ • Josh Kopelman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkopelman/ • KLA: https://www.kla.com/ • OpenAI: https://openai.com/ • Parallel: https://parallel.ai/ • Patrick Collison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/ • Stripe: https://stripe.com/ Where to find Parag: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paragagr/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/paraga Where to find Todd: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/tjack Where to find First Round Capital: • Website: https://firstround.com/ • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ • X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: (1:26) Founding Parallel with an AI-first mission (3:23) From Twitter CTO/CEO to startup founder (6:20) What the AI era spells for companies (7:58) The CEO to founder pipeline (11:18) Reflections on Twitter’s transformation (17:48) How Parallel was born (22:31) Early use cases for Parallel (31:42) How has Parallel’s ICP changed? (34:37) AI’s impact on competitor dynamics (36:06) When should founders launch? (37:43) Parag’s fundraising framework (40:14) Building a high-impact engineering team (44:49) Counterproductive uses of AI (47:35) How will the software engineer role evolve? (49:10) How are Parallel’s customers using AI? (53:27) Defining agents in 2025 (55:02) Parallel’s long-term vision (1:03:43) Parag’s growth as a founder |
2. Restructuring Corporate Leadership | co-founder and CEO of Parallel, a startup building search infrastructure for the web’s second user: AIs. Before launching Parallel, Parag spent over a decade at Twitter, where he served as CTO and later CEO during a period of intense transformation, as well as public scrutiny. In this episode, Parag shares what he learned from his time at Twitter, why the web must evolve to serve AI at massive scale, how Parallel is tackling “deep research” challenges by prioritizing accuracy over speed, and the design choices that make their APIs uniquely agent-friendly. We also discuss: • Why Parallel designs for AI as the primary customer • Lessons from 11 years at Twitter and applying them to a startup • Potential business models to keep the web open for AI • Hiring philosophy: balancing high potential and experienced talent • The evolving role of engineers in an AI-assisted world • Why “agents” are finally becoming useful in production • And much more… References: • Clay: https://www.clay.com/ • Index Ventures: https://www.indexventures.com/ • Josh Kopelman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkopelman/ • KLA: https://www.kla.com/ • OpenAI: https://openai.com/ • Parallel: https://parallel.ai/ • Patrick Collison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/ • Stripe: https://stripe.com/ Where to find Parag: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paragagr/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/paraga Where to find Todd: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/tjack Where to find First Round Capital: • Website: https://firstround.com/ • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ • X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: (1:26) Founding Parallel with an AI-first mission (3:23) From Twitter CTO/CEO to startup founder (6:20) What the AI era spells for companies (7:58) The CEO to founder pipeline (11:18) Reflections on Twitter’s transformation (17:48) How Parallel was born (22:31) Early use cases for Parallel (31:42) How has Parallel’s ICP changed? (34:37) AI’s impact on competitor dynamics (36:06) When should founders launch? (37:43) Parag’s fundraising framework (40:14) Building a high-impact engineering team (44:49) Counterproductive uses of AI (47:35) How will the software engineer role evolve? (49:10) How are Parallel’s customers using AI? (53:27) Defining agents in 2025 (55:02) Parallel’s long-term vision (1:03:43) Parag’s growth as a founder |
3. Defining the Coding Mission | co-founder and CEO of Parallel, a startup building search infrastructure for the web’s second user: AIs. Before launching Parallel, Parag spent over a decade at Twitter, where he served as CTO and later CEO during a period of intense transformation, as well as public scrutiny. In this episode, Parag shares what he learned from his time at Twitter, why the web must evolve to serve AI at massive scale, how Parallel is tackling “deep research” challenges by prioritizing accuracy over speed, and the design choices that make their APIs uniquely agent-friendly. We also discuss: • Why Parallel designs for AI as the primary customer • Lessons from 11 years at Twitter and applying them to a startup • Potential business models to keep the web open for AI • Hiring philosophy: balancing high potential and experienced talent • The evolving role of engineers in an AI-assisted world • Why “agents” are finally becoming useful in production • And much more… References: • Clay: https://www.clay.com/ • Index Ventures: https://www.indexventures.com/ • Josh Kopelman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkopelman/ • KLA: https://www.kla.com/ • OpenAI: https://openai.com/ • Parallel: https://parallel.ai/ • Patrick Collison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/ • Stripe: https://stripe.com/ Where to find Parag: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paragagr/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/paraga Where to find Todd: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/tjack Where to find First Round Capital: • Website: https://firstround.com/ • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ • X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: (1:26) Founding Parallel with an AI-first mission (3:23) From Twitter CTO/CEO to startup founder (6:20) What the AI era spells for companies (7:58) The CEO to founder pipeline (11:18) Reflections on Twitter’s transformation (17:48) How Parallel was born (22:31) Early use cases for Parallel (31:42) How has Parallel’s ICP changed? (34:37) AI’s impact on competitor dynamics (36:06) When should founders launch? (37:43) Parag’s fundraising framework (40:14) Building a high-impact engineering team (44:49) Counterproductive uses of AI (47:35) How will the software engineer role evolve? (49:10) How are Parallel’s customers using AI? (53:27) Defining agents in 2025 (55:02) Parallel’s long-term vision (1:03:43) Parag’s growth as a founder |
4. Optimizing for Repetitive Research | co-founder and CEO of Parallel, a startup building search infrastructure for the web’s second user: AIs. Before launching Parallel, Parag spent over a decade at Twitter, where he served as CTO and later CEO during a period of intense transformation, as well as public scrutiny. In this episode, Parag shares what he learned from his time at Twitter, why the web must evolve to serve AI at massive scale, how Parallel is tackling “deep research” challenges by prioritizing accuracy over speed, and the design choices that make their APIs uniquely agent-friendly. We also discuss: • Why Parallel designs for AI as the primary customer • Lessons from 11 years at Twitter and applying them to a startup • Potential business models to keep the web open for AI • Hiring philosophy: balancing high potential and experienced talent • The evolving role of engineers in an AI-assisted world • Why “agents” are finally becoming useful in production • And much more… References: • Clay: https://www.clay.com/ • Index Ventures: https://www.indexventures.com/ • Josh Kopelman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkopelman/ • KLA: https://www.kla.com/ • OpenAI: https://openai.com/ • Parallel: https://parallel.ai/ • Patrick Collison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/ • Stripe: https://stripe.com/ Where to find Parag: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paragagr/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/paraga Where to find Todd: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/tjack Where to find First Round Capital: • Website: https://firstround.com/ • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ • X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: (1:26) Founding Parallel with an AI-first mission (3:23) From Twitter CTO/CEO to startup founder (6:20) What the AI era spells for companies (7:58) The CEO to founder pipeline (11:18) Reflections on Twitter’s transformation (17:48) How Parallel was born (22:31) Early use cases for Parallel (31:42) How has Parallel’s ICP changed? (34:37) AI’s impact on competitor dynamics (36:06) When should founders launch? (37:43) Parag’s fundraising framework (40:14) Building a high-impact engineering team (44:49) Counterproductive uses of AI (47:35) How will the software engineer role evolve? (49:10) How are Parallel’s customers using AI? (53:27) Defining agents in 2025 (55:02) Parallel’s long-term vision (1:03:43) Parag’s growth as a founder |
5. Iterative API Design Strategy | co-founder and CEO of Parallel, a startup building search infrastructure for the web’s second user: AIs. Before launching Parallel, Parag spent over a decade at Twitter, where he served as CTO and later CEO during a period of intense transformation, as well as public scrutiny. In this episode, Parag shares what he learned from his time at Twitter, why the web must evolve to serve AI at massive scale, how Parallel is tackling “deep research” challenges by prioritizing accuracy over speed, and the design choices that make their APIs uniquely agent-friendly. We also discuss: • Why Parallel designs for AI as the primary customer • Lessons from 11 years at Twitter and applying them to a startup • Potential business models to keep the web open for AI • Hiring philosophy: balancing high potential and experienced talent • The evolving role of engineers in an AI-assisted world • Why “agents” are finally becoming useful in production • And much more… References: • Clay: https://www.clay.com/ • Index Ventures: https://www.indexventures.com/ • Josh Kopelman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkopelman/ • KLA: https://www.kla.com/ • OpenAI: https://openai.com/ • Parallel: https://parallel.ai/ • Patrick Collison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/ • Stripe: https://stripe.com/ Where to find Parag: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paragagr/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/paraga Where to find Todd: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/tjack Where to find First Round Capital: • Website: https://firstround.com/ • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ • X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: (1:26) Founding Parallel with an AI-first mission (3:23) From Twitter CTO/CEO to startup founder (6:20) What the AI era spells for companies (7:58) The CEO to founder pipeline (11:18) Reflections on Twitter’s transformation (17:48) How Parallel was born (22:31) Early use cases for Parallel (31:42) How has Parallel’s ICP changed? (34:37) AI’s impact on competitor dynamics (36:06) When should founders launch? (37:43) Parag’s fundraising framework (40:14) Building a high-impact engineering team (44:49) Counterproductive uses of AI (47:35) How will the software engineer role evolve? (49:10) How are Parallel’s customers using AI? (53:27) Defining agents in 2025 (55:02) Parallel’s long-term vision (1:03:43) Parag’s growth as a founder |
6. Creating High-Impact Engineering Teams | co-founder and CEO of Parallel, a startup building search infrastructure for the web’s second user: AIs. Before launching Parallel, Parag spent over a decade at Twitter, where he served as CTO and later CEO during a period of intense transformation, as well as public scrutiny. In this episode, Parag shares what he learned from his time at Twitter, why the web must evolve to serve AI at massive scale, how Parallel is tackling “deep research” challenges by prioritizing accuracy over speed, and the design choices that make their APIs uniquely agent-friendly. We also discuss: • Why Parallel designs for AI as the primary customer • Lessons from 11 years at Twitter and applying them to a startup • Potential business models to keep the web open for AI • Hiring philosophy: balancing high potential and experienced talent • The evolving role of engineers in an AI-assisted world • Why “agents” are finally becoming useful in production • And much more… References: • Clay: https://www.clay.com/ • Index Ventures: https://www.indexventures.com/ • Josh Kopelman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkopelman/ • KLA: https://www.kla.com/ • OpenAI: https://openai.com/ • Parallel: https://parallel.ai/ • Patrick Collison: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickcollison/ • Stripe: https://stripe.com/ Where to find Parag: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paragagr/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/paraga Where to find Todd: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddj0/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/tjack Where to find First Round Capital: • Website: https://firstround.com/ • First Round Review: https://review.firstround.com/ • X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/firstround • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FirstRoundCapital • This podcast on all platforms: https://review.firstround.com/podcast Timestamps: (1:26) Founding Parallel with an AI-first mission (3:23) From Twitter CTO/CEO to startup founder (6:20) What the AI era spells for companies (7:58) The CEO to founder pipeline (11:18) Reflections on Twitter’s transformation (17:48) How Parallel was born (22:31) Early use cases for Parallel (31:42) How has Parallel’s ICP changed? (34:37) AI’s impact on competitor dynamics (36:06) When should founders launch? (37:43) Parag’s fundraising framework (40:14) Building a high-impact engineering team (44:49) Counterproductive uses of AI (47:35) How will the software engineer role evolve? (49:10) How are Parallel’s customers using AI? (53:27) Defining agents in 2025 (55:02) Parallel’s long-term vision (1:03:43) Parag’s growth as a founder |
Detailed Findings and Insights
1. Repetitive KPO Discovery
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22:59 - 25:01
Performance for AI agents improves significantly when the work is repetitive and well-defined.
23:32 - 25:36
Data sets regarding government taxes and compliance are being handled by these systems.
2. Natural Language API Optimization
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30:23 - 32:28
The infrastructure is designed for natural language queries rather than traditional human interfaces.
30:35 - 32:36
The company does not optimize its APIs for humans because it expects AI users.
3. AI Infrastructure Integration
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Video Title
01:43 - 03:48
Need to transform. In order to drive that transformation, we've been building the best tools that AIs can.
46:52 - 48:57
Connecting AI to the infrastructure makes it friendlier for autonomous agents to use.
4. Alpha Talent Philosophy
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41:09 - 43:12
Hiring focuses on high potential individuals rather than those with just a long history.
42:52 - 44:53
The goal is to find high alpha people with a track record of being right.
5. Foundational Confidence Scoring
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55:18 - 57:18
The system provides attribution to specific web sources used during the research process.
55:30 - 57:34
Confidence scoring is provided for all output elements to ensure reliability for the user.
6. Founder Mode Innovation
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50:12 - 52:17
Customers are operating in a forward-looking mode that drives extreme innovation and risk.
28:01 - 30:06
The speaker views these forward-looking customers as partners for true co-innovation.
