Josh Miller on How The Browser Company Started, How to Hire, Arc Search, and Building in Public

The Peel with Turner Novak

Josh Miller is CEO and co-founder of The Browser Company, which is building a new internet browser. He explains why effective hiring requires caring a lot and trusting your taste and why Arc Search, a default mobile browser, could be The Browser Company’s next act.

TIMESTAMPS:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:02:35) Working for Obama

(00:03:55) Giving up 8-figures in Meta stock

(00:08:19) Barack Obama’s favorite web browser

(00:09:02) Why Arc released a mobile browser

(00:10:03) How Josh met Josh Kushner

(00:11:26) Becoming an EIR at Thrive Capital

(00:12:09) How The Browser Company got started

(00:15:51) Why they named it The Browser Company

(00:18:49) Pivoting to consumer when COVID hit

(00:20:37) Leaving Thrive to join as a Co-founder in February 2020

(00:21:05) Why COVID made browsers relevant

(00:22:42) How to hire a great team

(00:25:02) Hiring Josh Lee to edit their videos

(00:26:52) The biggest difference between Josh as a first-time and second-time founder

(00:28:46) Learning to delegate

(00:34:03) Why Thrive gave up double-digit equity back to the founders

(00:40:18) Launching

(00:40:52) Why build a web browser

(00:42:17) This history of browsers

(00:43:36) Why they’ve gotten worse over time

(00:50:26) The reasons people use Arc

(00:53:23) How Arc will make money

(00:56:45) Why Arc’s existential question is getting people to care about their browser

(00:59:47) The story behind Arc Search

(01:00:45) Arc’s potential growth flywheel

(01:09:17) Why Arc bet big on building in public on YouTube

(01:10:16) The publisher backlash to Arc Search

(01:11:33) Why praising your team publicly is so important

(01:13:39) How Josh hired Nate Parrott

More on The Browser Company:

https://thebrowser.company/

https://arc.net/https://

www.youtube.com/c/TheBrowserCompany

Where to find Josh:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/joshm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-miller-b31259106

Where to find Turner:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnerNovak

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/turnernovak/

Newsletter: https://www.thespl.it/