--- schema: 1 type: video title: >- Best of the Pod: Would You Shut Down Your Most Successful Product? The Arc to Dia Story description: >- If you had millions of people using a product you spent years building, would you kill it? That’s exactly what The Browser Company did with Arc. Originally recorded in July before The Browser Company’s acquisition by software giant Atlassian earlier this year, we’re republishing this episode because its lessons are truly timeless. Today, the team continues to operate independently under Atlassian’s umbrella. The internet backlash when the company killed Arc in May 2025 was intense, but cofounders Josh Miller and Hursh Agrawal saw that AI was about to make the web something you talk to, not just click into. The best home for that assistant was the thing that's already between you and the internet—the browser. And they realized they couldn’t just duct-tape it on to Arc. One year of heads-down work later, the team launched Dia in beta, and people are raving about it. Dia is a sleek, fast, browser with AI at its core—it gets better with every tab you open, becoming more and more helpful with time. And even though it’s still early, Josh and Hursh’s big pivot looks like one for the ages. In this episode of AI & I, Josh and Hursh spoke for the first time in a full-length podcast about their pivot from Arc to Dia. We talked through their decision-making process, the very public backlash the company faced, and the grit it took to stay the course. If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more? Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free. To hear more from Dan Shipper: Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Start 00:00:48 - Introduction 00:02:22 - The story of how Dan might've been the CEO of The Browser Company 00:09:40 - The moment Josh and Hursh knew they had to walk away from Arc 00:16:59 - How to handle the weight of the unknown in a pivot 00:23:24 - The prototype-driven culture that kept The Browser Company alive 00:25:06 - Why having a product loved by millions of users isn't enough 00:32:12 - The architectural decisions underlying how Dia was built 00:46:04 - How Dia almost shipped without its best feature 00:50:45 - The best ways people are using Dia in the wild 01:07:27 - How Josh and Hursh think about competing with incumbents 01:17:13 - How romanticism informs the product decisions behind Dia Links to resources mentioned in the episode: Hursh Agrawal: @hursh Josh Miller: @joshm More about Dia: https://www.diabrowser.com/ Writer and investor M.G. Siegler’s essay about the AI browser wars: https://spyglass.org/ai-browser-wars/ Note: This episode is a rerun from our archives. canonical: >- https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/video/best-of-the-pod-would-you-shut-down-your-most-succe-806f9634c2ef markdown: >- https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/video/best-of-the-pod-would-you-shut-down-your-most-succe-806f9634c2ef.md llms: null parent: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc.md' channel: everyinc updated: '2026-10-24T01:06:28.540Z' language: null children: [] videoId: fzNOEYF3Nu4 durationSeconds: 5025 publishedAt: '2025-11-26T16:06:22.000Z' searchChunks: - ordinal: 0 text: null startSeconds: 292 endSeconds: 381 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=292' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 1 text: null startSeconds: 592 endSeconds: 603 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=592' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 2 text: null startSeconds: 700 endSeconds: 837 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=700' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 3 text: null startSeconds: 847 endSeconds: 978 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=847' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 4 text: null startSeconds: 978 endSeconds: 990 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=978' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 5 text: null startSeconds: 1032 endSeconds: 1123 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=1032' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 6 text: null startSeconds: 1244 endSeconds: 1357 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=1244' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 7 text: null startSeconds: 1367 endSeconds: 1411 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=1367' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 8 text: null startSeconds: 1523 endSeconds: 1655 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=1523' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 9 text: null startSeconds: 1796 endSeconds: 1942 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=1796' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 10 text: null startSeconds: 1954 endSeconds: 2041 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=1954' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 11 text: null startSeconds: 2176 endSeconds: 2264 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=2176' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 12 text: null startSeconds: 2784 endSeconds: 3051 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=2784' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 13 text: null startSeconds: 3061 endSeconds: 3186 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=3061' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 14 text: null startSeconds: 3197 endSeconds: 3327 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=3197' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 15 text: null startSeconds: 3338 endSeconds: 3417 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=3338' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 16 text: null startSeconds: 3520 endSeconds: 3619 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=3520' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 17 text: null startSeconds: 3629 endSeconds: 3744 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=3629' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 18 text: null startSeconds: 4068 endSeconds: 4170 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=4068' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 19 text: null startSeconds: 4181 endSeconds: 4262 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=4181' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 20 text: null startSeconds: 4371 endSeconds: 4457 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=4371' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 21 text: null startSeconds: 4652 endSeconds: 4743 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=4652' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 22 text: null startSeconds: 4755 endSeconds: 4848 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=4755' heldReason: rights - ordinal: 23 text: null startSeconds: 2397 endSeconds: 2496 watch: 'https://liquidgold.cc/watch/fzNOEYF3Nu4?t=2397' heldReason: rights --- # Best of the Pod: Would You Shut Down Your Most Successful Product? The Arc to Dia Story If you had millions of people using a product you spent years building, would you kill it? That’s exactly what The Browser Company did with Arc. Originally recorded in July before The Browser Company’s acquisition by software giant Atlassian earlier this year, we’re republishing this episode because its lessons are truly timeless. Today, the team continues to operate independently under Atlassian’s umbrella. The internet backlash when the company killed Arc in May 2025 was intense, but cofounders Josh Miller and Hursh Agrawal saw that AI was about to make the web something you talk to, not just click into. The best home for that assistant was the thing that's already between you and the internet—the browser. And they realized they couldn’t just duct-tape it on to Arc. One year of heads-down work later, the team launched Dia in beta, and people are raving about it. Dia is a sleek, fast, browser with AI at its core—it gets better with every tab you open, becoming more and more helpful with time. And even though it’s still early, Josh and Hursh’s big pivot looks like one for the ages. In this episode of AI & I, Josh and Hursh spoke for the first time in a full-length podcast about their pivot from Arc to Dia. We talked through their decision-making process, the very public backlash the company faced, and the grit it took to stay the course. If you found this episode interesting, please like, subscribe, comment, and share! Want even more? Sign up for Every to unlock our ultimate guide to prompting ChatGPT here: https://every.ck.page/ultimate-guide-to-prompting-chatgpt. It’s usually only for paying subscribers, but you can get it here for free. To hear more from Dan Shipper: Subscribe to Every: https://every.to/subscribe Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/danshipper Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Start 00:00:48 - Introduction 00:02:22 - The story of how Dan might've been the CEO of The Browser Company 00:09:40 - The moment Josh and Hursh knew they had to walk away from Arc 00:16:59 - How to handle the weight of the unknown in a pivot 00:23:24 - The prototype-driven culture that kept The Browser Company alive 00:25:06 - Why having a product loved by millions of users isn't enough 00:32:12 - The architectural decisions underlying how Dia was built 00:46:04 - How Dia almost shipped without its best feature 00:50:45 - The best ways people are using Dia in the wild 01:07:27 - How Josh and Hursh think about competing with incumbents 01:17:13 - How romanticism informs the product decisions behind Dia Links to resources mentioned in the episode: Hursh Agrawal: @hursh Josh Miller: @joshm More about Dia: https://www.diabrowser.com/ Writer and investor M.G. Siegler’s essay about the AI browser wars: https://spyglass.org/ai-browser-wars/ Note: This episode is a rerun from our archives. Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/video/best-of-the-pod-would-you-shut-down-your-most-succe-806f9634c2ef · Channel: [Every](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc.md) > Search chunk text is held until public-source provenance is verified. ## Document chunks > Missing: no stored document chunks are available.