Shishir Mehrotra on Building Tools Creators Love

What if your tools shared context like your team does? This week on Grit, Shishir Mehrotra shares how the Coda and Grammarly collaboration unlocks context as a “superpower,” reflects on his early days at Google and YouTube, and hints at a future where tools anticipate intent and amplify how we work. He also shares how this paves the way for agent-based workflows and AI-native communication, beginning with Superhuman’s email experience. Guest: Shishir Mehrotra, co-founder of Coda and CEO of Grammarly Connect with ShishirXLinkedIn Chapters: 00:00 Trailer 01:24 Introduction 02:09 Zoo vs safari 12:02 A TV ahead of its time 21:25 Product decisions 31:25 The data behind the algorithm 37:26 The AI native productivity suite 48:06 Agents are digital humans 57:55 Pressure trade-off 1:12:50 Insulated from judgment 1:25:19 Who Grammarly is hiring 1:25:51 What “grit” means to Shishir 1:29:30 Outro Mentioned in this episode: YouTube, Ray William Johnson, Spotify, Twitch, MTV, Chris Cox, Facebook, TikTok, Google TV, Centrata, Google Chrome, Android, Gmail, Microsoft, Super Bowl, Mosaic, Panasonic, Sony, Susan Wojcicki, Rishi Chandra, Apple TV, Amazon Firestick, Comcast, LoudCloud (Opsware), Quest Communications, AT&T Southwestern Bell, Salar Kamangar, Patrick Pichette, Eric Schmidt, OpenAI ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Platforms, Sundar Pichai, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Hamilton, Reid Hoffman, Sam Altman, Tesla, Waymo, Airtable, Notion, Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko, Superhuman, Duolingo, Luis von Ahn, Khan Academy, MrBeast, Facebook Messenger, Snap (Snapchat), WhatsApp, Google+, Meta LLaMa, Satya Nadella, Tim Cook, Daniel Gross Connect with JoubinXLinkedInEmail: grit@kleinerperkins.com Learn more about Kleiner Perkins