Minh Nguyen Do: From Intern to Founding GTM at Janet AI in 60 Days
Founding GTM at Janet AI (YC Backed). On leave from Carnegie Mellon University, organizer of ProdHacks. From intern to founding GTM in 60 days, building custom agent memory, and process over outcome.
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What you learn in these 8 minutes
- ✓Pausing Undergrad for High-Growth Startups: Minh instantly decided to take leave from Carnegie Mellon, recognizing early-stage startup experience expands long-term optionality far faster than classroom lectures alone.
- ✓Custom Memory Infrastructure: Janet AI agents learn an entire organization's memory graph to connect data across teams, automate workflows, and operate 24/7.
- ✓From Intern to Founding GTM in 60 Days: Operating with high ownership without waiting for step-by-step instructions—filming launch videos, building content tooling, and running vertical discovery calls.
- ✓Building What Doesn't Exist Yet: Early-stage GTM has no open-source libraries or fixed playbooks; operators must build internal mental models by talking directly to peers across the industry.
- ✓Process Over Outcome: In an era where modern AI models can deliver one-off outcomes instantly, the real competitive edge of an operator is building repeatable, scalable systems within an organization.
"Undergrad helps you do two things: learn how to think and prepare for the workforce. Nothing does both better than an early-stage startup."
— Minh Nguyen Do, Founding GTM at Janet AI (YC Backed) · Organizer, ProdHacks
"Models are powerful enough that you can ask for an outcome and it will achieve it. But your concern as an operator is: how is this repeatable, and how is this scalable within an organization?"
— Minh Nguyen Do, Founding GTM at Janet AI (YC Backed) · Organizer, ProdHacks
"When you're hired into a small early-stage team, you're not hired to execute a system that's already in place—you're hired to build something that doesn't exist yet."
— Minh Nguyen Do, Founding GTM at Janet AI (YC Backed) · Organizer, ProdHacks
"There are open-source libraries you can reference when you write code, but there's no such thing for GTM. You have to build an internal mental model by speaking directly to other operators in the space."
— Minh Nguyen Do, Founding GTM at Janet AI (YC Backed) · Organizer, ProdHacks
Minh Nguyen Do
Founding GTM at Janet AI (YC Backed) · Organizer, ProdHacks
Minh Nguyen Do is Founding GTM at Janet AI, a Y Combinator-backed startup building 24/7 AI agents that learn your company's memory infrastructure. On leave from Carnegie Mellon University studying Information Systems and AI, Minh also organizes ProdHacks, Pittsburgh's largest product hackathon, and hosts community pop-up cafes.
· Hosted by Daniel DanoEight minutes. One interesting person. No fluff.
Eight Minute Episodes is a high-signal LinkedIn interview show hosted by Daniel Dano — American teenage software developer, founder of Ryla Labs, and author of Built Young. We invite founders, builders, and young innovators for frictionless 15-minute recording sessions with zero prep fluff.
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Got questions? I've got answers
A few things people usually ask me first.
Mostly web apps, small tools and mobile products — through Ryla Labs. I'm happiest on projects where I can own the build end to end.
School comes first. I build in the evenings and on weekends, and I plan projects in scopes that fit around classes and leadership commitments.
My first book, Built Young, is out now on Amazon in Kindle, Hardcover, and Paperback editions — it's a playbook for student founders drawn from two years building and shipping software as a teenager. I also write shorter essays on the blog.
Yes — send me a note through the contact section and tell me what you're building.