Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover concrete, actionable, and tactical advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Guillermo Rauch discusses V0, Vercel's AI website building tool, and its mission to empower a hundred million builders. He covers the impact of AI on product development, essential skills for the future, and strategies for improving product design and quality. The episode also explores Vercel's AI-driven development processes and Guillermo's vision for a future where everyone can build and ship their ideas.
Kevin Weil is the chief product officer at OpenAI, where he oversees the development of ChatGPT, enterprise products, and the OpenAI API. Prior to OpenAI, Kevin was head of product at Twitter, Instagram, and Planet, and was instrumental in the development of the Libra (later Novi) cryptocurrency project at Facebook. In this episode, you’ll learn: 1. How OpenAI structures its product teams and maintains agility while developing cutting-edge AI 2. The power of model ensembles—using multiple specia...
Wes Kao shares frameworks for becoming a better communicator, emphasizing clarity, influence, and impact. She covers anticipating objections, concise writing, executive presence, and managing up. The episode also explores effective delegation, feedback strategies, and using AI to enhance communication skills.
Ryan Singer, creator of Shape Up, discusses a better way to plan, build, and ship products. He dives into the appetite-driven approach to product development, the process for running effective “shaping” sessions, and practical techniques for bridging the engineering-design divide. The episode provides insights for implementing Shape Up methods in both startups and enterprise environments, and adapting principles to fit a company’s unique context.
Gaurav Misra, CEO of Captions, discusses how to win in the AI era by shipping a feature every week, embracing technical debt, and creating magic your competitors can't copy. He shares insights from his time at Snap, including their unique product development approach with designers as PMs. The conversation also covers the future of AI-generated video and its impact on marketing.
Rahul Vohra, CEO of Superhuman, discusses the company's unique strategies for success, including ignoring most customer feedback, manually onboarding users, and obsessing over details. He emphasizes the importance of focusing on a single key attribute—speed—and leveraging game design principles in B2B software. The conversation also covers Superhuman's approach to product-market fit, contrarian pricing strategies, and the integration of AI to enhance the email experience.
Susan Cain, author of "Quiet," discusses how introverts can thrive in the workplace by embracing their true selves rather than trying to become extroverted, sharing practical tactics for success and strategies for handling challenging workplace scenarios. The conversation also covers creating supportive environments, raising introverted children, and the importance of understanding and leveraging introverted strengths for career advancement.
Eric Simons is the founder and CEO of StackBlitz, the company behind Bolt—the #1 web-based AI coding agent and one of the fastest-growing products in history. After nearly shutting down, StackBlitz launched Bolt on Twitter and exploded from zero to $40 million ARR and 1 million monthly active users in about five months. What you’ll learn: 1. How Bolt reached nearly $40M ARR and 3 million registered users in just five months with a team of only 15 to 20 people 2. How Bolt leverages WebContainer t...
Anton Osika, CEO of Lovable, discusses building an AI-powered tool that turns descriptions into working products without code, achieving rapid growth to $10M ARR in just 60 days with a small team. The episode covers a live demo, team dynamics, hiring, future skills, and Lovable's vision to be the last piece of software ever needed. It also highlights the importance of product taste, dealing with AI 'unstucking,' and advice for new product teams.
Ivan Zhao, CEO of Notion, shares the untold story of Notion's early struggles, including near collapse during Covid, and how they found product-market fit after years of resets. Zhao discusses the importance of staying lean, prioritizing systems, and building a product aligned with core values. He emphasizes craft, trade-offs, and the philosophy of tools in relation to human potential, providing valuable insights for founders and product builders.
Matt Mullenweg is the co-founder of WordPress, the open source platform powering a staggering 43% of the internet. He also serves as CEO of Automattic—the parent company of brands like WordPress.com, WooCommerce, and Tumblr—which is worth over $7 billion, with over 1,700 employees across 90 countries. In this episode, he discusses some of the most controversial topics surrounding WordPress, Automattic, and the broader open source community. — What you’ll learn: • Matt’s response to public critic...
Keith Coleman (VP of product) and Jay Baxter (founding ML engineer), the minds behind Community Notes, reveal how a small, scrappy team inside Twitter/X built the most trusted crowdsourced information system on the internet—one that’s changing the way we understand truth online. What you’ll learn: 1. How Community Notes actually works —a deep dive into the groundbreaking algorithm that rewards “bridging agreement” instead of majority rule 2. The seemingly crazy yet brilliant way this idea surviv...
Bob Moesta , co-creator of the Jobs to Be Done framework, recently published a new book, Job Moves . Drawing from interviews with over 1,000 people about their career transitions, it offers a practical playbook for career development. In our conversation, we discuss: • The four different “quests” that drive career changes • Why job features (salary, title) matter less than experiences • How to identify what gives you energy vs. drains you • The power of taking a “jobcation” • A template for craf...
Uri Levine is a co-founder of Waze (which was acquired by Google for $1.3 billion in 2013), along with nine other companies (including another company he sold for over $1 billion). He’s also been on 20 boards and has been an advisor to over 50 startups. He recently released a new chapter of his best-selling book Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution , which provides a guide to surviving crises at your company. In this episode, we cover: • The two types of startup crisis and how to hand...
Karina Nguyen leads research at OpenAI, where she’s been pivotal in developing groundbreaking products like Canvas, Tasks, and the o1 language model. Before OpenAI, Karina was at Anthropic, where she led post-training and evaluation work for Claude 3 models, created a document upload feature with 100,000 context windows, and contributed to numerous other innovations. With experience as an engineer at the New York Times and as a designer at Dropbox and Square, Karina has a rare firsthand perspect...
Tobi Lütke is the founder and CEO of Shopify, a $130 billion business that powers over 10% of all U.S. e-commerce. Starting as a snowboard shop in 2004, Shopify has become the leading commerce platform by consistently approaching problems differently. Tobi remains deeply technical, frequently coding alongside his team, and is known for his unique approach to leadership, product development, and company building. In our conversation, we discuss: • Why complexity kills entrepreneurship • How to de...
Nan Yu is the head of product at Linear, one of the most beloved and fastest-growing B2B SaaS products out there today, and the gold standard for high-performing tech teams. In our conversation, we discuss: • Why speed and quality aren’t actually at odds • Linear’s unique approach to product development • Nan’s systematic approach to creativity • Linear’s philosophy on deadlines • The “double triangle” framework for product management • Nan’s approach to landing his dream product roles • Much mo...
Chandra Janakiraman is the chief product officer, executive vice president, and a board member at VRChat. Previously, he was a product leader at Meta, where he led Facebook’s social experience interfaces and Reality Labs’ growth; served as CPO at Headspace, where he helped relaunch the platform, driving a 4x subscriber boost; and was a GM at Zynga, delivering massive hit games that reached hundreds of millions. In our conversation, Chandra shares: • His playbook for developing a product strategy...
Elena Verna is one of Silicon Valley’s most sought-after growth advisors and operators. She previously led growth at companies like Amplitude, Miro, Dropbox, and SurveyMonkey and is currently doing full-time advising for high-growth tech companies. In our conversation, Elena and I discuss: • 10 growth tactics that never work • Her 3 favorite growth frameworks • How to increase your career optionality — Brought to you by: • Sinch —Build messaging, email, and calling into your product • Vanta —Aut...
Graham Weaver teaches a top-rated course at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), where he often unexpectedly ends up helping students figure out what to do with their lives. He is also the founder and CEO of Alpine Investors, a people-driven private equity firm. In our conversation, we discuss: • Why everything worthwhile requires suffering • Why most people operate on autopilot, and how to break free • The “genie methodology” for discovering your true path • The Nine Lives exercise for...
Rohini Pandhi is a product leader at Mercury, and previously spent over seven years at Square/Block leading product work on Square payments, invoicing, and the Bitkey hardware Bitcoin wallet. She’s also the co-founder of the startup bootcamp Transparent Collective and is an active angel investor. In our conversation, we discuss: • Key indicators that it’s time to hire PMs • How to build your early PM team • Why founders should initially take on the product manager role themselves • How to attrac...
Drew Houston is the co-founder and CEO of Dropbox. Under his leadership, Dropbox has grown from a simple idea to a service used by over 700 million registered users globally, with a valuation exceeding $9 billion. Drew has led Dropbox through multiple phases, from explosive viral growth, to battling all the tech giants at once, to reinventing the company for the future of work. In our conversation, he opens up about: • The three eras of Dropbox’s growth and evolution • The challenges he’s faced ...
Alisa Cohn is an executive coach who has worked with C-suite executives at startups like Venmo, Etsy, Wirecutter, and DraftKings, and Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Google, Pfizer, Dell, and IBM. Inc. Magazine named Alisa one of the top 100 leadership speakers, and she was named one of the Top 50 coaches in the world by Thinkers50 and the #1 startup coach for the past four years by Global Gurus. She is also the author of From Start-Up to Grown-Up , which won the 2022 Independent Press Awa...
Eilon Reshef is the co-founder and chief product officer at Gong, one of the most ubiquitous B2B products in the world. In our conversation, we discuss: • Gong’s unique approach to working with design partners • Their unique pod model • Why Eilon makes big decisions quickly • Lessons learned from being early in AI • The power of extreme focus • His “spiral method” for learning complex topics quickly • How to maintain quality while optimizing for speed — Brought to you by: • WorkOS —Modern identi...
Shaun Clowes is the chief product officer at Confluent and former CPO at Salesforce’s MuleSoft and at Metromile. He was also the first head of growth at Atlassian, where he led product for Jira Agile and built the first-ever B2B growth team. In our conversation, we discuss: • Why most PMs are bad, and how to fix this • Why great AI products are all about the data • Why he changed his mind about being data-driven • How to build your B2B growth team • How to choose your next career stop • Much mor...
Marc Benioff is the co-founder and CEO of Salesforce, the second-largest software company in the world. He started programming at age 15, selling his first program for $75, and went on to build Salesforce into a company worth more than $300 billion that also owns Slack, Tableau, Quip, and MuleSoft. Marc is known as a marketing legend, and is now leading Salesforce into the era of AI agents. In our conversation, we discuss: • The importance of maintaining a beginner’s mind • His approach to produ...
Farhan Thawar is the head of engineering at Shopify, where he oversees more than 1,000 engineers and a platform that powers over 10% of all U.S. e-commerce. Before Shopify, he was VP of engineering at Pivotal Labs and Xtreme Labs, and co-founder of Helpful.com. In our conversation, Farhan shares: • Why choosing the harder path leads to better outcomes • How to create intensity within your org (without burnout) • Why every company should be embracing pair programming • How he hires without interv...
Jackson Shuttleworth is a Group PM at Duolingo, where he leads the retention team and the powerful streak feature. The streak feature, which gamifies consecutive days of learning, has been Duolingo’s most important and innovative growth lever and a key driver of their growth to a $14 billion business with almost 600 million users. In our conversation, we dive deep into the history and lessons of this feature: • The evolution of the streak feature • Biggest insights from over 600 streak-related e...
Seth Godin is a legend. He’s a marketer, teacher, entrepreneur, and author of more than 20 books, including Purple Cow , Permission Marketing , and Linchpin . He also writes one of the most popular and longest-running blogs in the world (approaching publishing 10,000 in a row !) and continues to shape how we think about marketing, brand, product, and creating lasting change in the world. In our conversation, we discuss: • How to build remarkable products that spread • The four critical strategic...
Jonathan Lowenhar is the co-founder of Enjoy The Work, an executive coaching firm that helps founders become great CEOs. Over the past decade, Enjoy The Work has supported over 165 founders on their journey to becoming better leaders. In our conversation, we discuss: • The difference between being a founder and being a CEO • Common failure modes for startup CEOs and how to avoid them • The four key elements of an effective go-to-market strategy • A framework for evaluating potential acquisitions...
