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.
Peter Deng has led product teams at OpenAI, Instagram, Uber, Facebook, Airtable, and Oculus and helped build products used by billions—including Facebook’s News Feed, the standalone Messenger app, Instagram filters, Uber Reserve, ChatGPT, and more. Currently he’s investing in early-stage founders at Felicis. In this episode, Peter dives into his most valuable lessons from building and scaling some of tech’s most iconic products and companies. What you’ll learn: 1. Peter’s one‑sentence test for h...
This episode features Sander Schulhoff, founder of Learn Prompting, discussing the evolving world of AI. He shares effective prompt engineering techniques for better results, distinguishing between conversational and product-focused approaches. Sander also dives into the critical area of AI security, explaining prompt injection, AI red teaming efforts like HackAPrompt, and the significant challenges posed by autonomous AI agents and misalignment risks.
Hilary Gridley, Head of Core Product at WHOOP, discusses how to build resilient teams that can "take a punch" by focusing on action over rumination and applying behavioral psychology tactics. She explains the importance of understanding leaders' mental models, finding fulfillment in operationalizing company vision, and designing reward loops for desired team habits. Hilary also highlights AI's potential for accelerating personal and professional learning and shares exciting updates on WHOOP 5.0.
Design leader Bob Baxley discusses his extensive career at companies like Apple and Pinterest, sharing insights on navigating diverse company cultures and the challenge of executive growth. He delves into his unique perspective on design as clear thinking, arguing for its strategic value and the importance of integrating design and engineering early. Bob also champions the moral obligation tech professionals have to reduce user frustration, views software as a powerful medium, and draws lessons from unexpected places like the Apollo program for championing radical ideas in product development.
Sebastian Barrios was the longtime head of product and engineering at Mercado Libre, the largest company in Latin America—valued at over $100 billion and home to more than 100,000 employees. There, he led a team of more than 18,000 engineers across 18 countries and oversaw an astonishing 30,000 code deployments a day. Before Mercado Libre, he founded multiple startups, including a ridesharing company that competed directly with Uber in Latin America. And at just 17, he got a personal phone call ...
Mike Krieger, CPO at Anthropic and Instagram co-founder, discusses how AI is changing product development, with 90% of Anthropic's code written by AI creating new bottlenecks. He shares insights on future product team value, prompting techniques for Claude, why he shut down his news app Artifact, and where AI startups can find defensible niches. The episode also features Claude's own questions and a touching message for Mike.
Sachin Kansal is chief product officer at Uber, where he oversees the Rider, Driver, Delivery, Grocery, and New Verticals product lines used for 33 million daily trips worldwide. He’s been in product for over 25 years (at Google, Palm, Flywheel, and now Uber). He is known for his “extreme dogfooding” ethos—personally completing almost a thousand Uber driving and delivery trips to sharpen his product insight and user empathy—and his “ship, ship, ship” mantra, which drives rapid iteration across U...
Krithika Shankarraman was the first marketing hire at OpenAI and Stripe and led marketing at Retool. At OpenAI, she established marketing foundations for ChatGPT for consumers and enterprises, as well as their developer API platform. While at Stripe, she spent over eight years building and scaling their marketing function from scratch. An engineer turned marketer, Krithika brings a uniquely analytical approach to marketing. She currently serves as Entrepreneur in Residence at Thrive Capital, whe...
Mayur Kamat is the chief product officer at N26—a $9 billion neobank serving over 7 million customers in 25 countries—where he leads product, design, data, and research. Prior to N26, Mayur was Head of Product at Binance, growing the crypto exchange to a peak $400 billion valuation. Earlier in his career, he built and scaled products at Google (Gmail Mobile, Hangouts), Microsoft, and travel unicorn Agoda. Learn: 1. How to find and focus on the highest-leverage problems 2. Why you shouldn’t optim...
Aparna Chennapragada, CPO at Microsoft, discusses the transformative impact of AI on product development and the workplace. She defines AI agents, explains why Natural Language Experience (NLX) is the new UX, and shares insights on prototyping with AI and the evolving role of product managers. Aparna also reflects on her career, compares the leadership styles of Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai, and looks ahead to the future of human-agent collaboration.
Revolut's Head of Product, Dmitry Zlokazov, shares insights into developing top-tier product managers within the fast-growing fintech company. He explains their "local CEO" model, where Product Owners have end-to-end ownership over cross-functional teams. Key factors include cultivating deep problem-solving skills, an intense focus on building delightful "wow" products, and prioritizing raw intellect and hunger over extensive prior experience when hiring. Dmitry also touches upon the importance of direct customer connection, founder involvement in product details, and the challenges of scaling rapidly across numerous jurisdictions.
Nabeel Qureshi discusses Palantir's unique culture, hiring practices, and the forward-deployed engineer model. He explores how Palantir evolved into a successful data/software platform and shares insights on building products, managing data, and starting companies, including the importance of mission alignment and contrarian thinking. The episode also delves into the moral considerations of working at Palantir and offers AI tool recommendations.
Jerry Colonna is a world-renowned executive coach, a former venture capitalist, and the co-founder and CEO of Reboot, an executive coaching firm that combines practical leadership development with deeper self-inquiry. With over 27 years of coaching experience, he has guided countless leaders through the challenges of scaling companies, building teams, and navigating the emotional complexities of leadership. Known for his radical-self-inquiry approach, Jerry helps leaders uncover the unconscious ...
Scott Wu is the co-founder and CEO of Cognition, the company behind Devin—the world’s first autonomous AI software engineer. Unlike other AI coding tools, Devin works like an autonomous engineer that you can interact with through Slack, Linear, and GitHub, just like with a remote engineer. With Scott’s background in competitive programming and a previous AI-powered startup, Lunchclub, teaching AI to code has become his ultimate passion.What you’ll learn: 1. How a team of “Devins” are already pro...
Michael Truell discusses Cursor's journey to becoming a $300M ARR AI code editor, driven by the vision of "what comes after code." He shares insights on building custom AI models, the increasing importance of "taste" in software development, and the future of engineering roles. The conversation covers market dynamics, defensibility in AI, and advice for those preparing for the AI-driven future.
Daniel Lereya shares monday.com's journey to $1B ARR, focusing on a transformation spurred by competitors shipping faster. He discusses setting ambitious goals, prioritizing impact over output, and radical transparency, revealing how these strategies redefined monday.com's market position and culture. Lereya also touches on personal leadership challenges and the role of AI, providing insights for recognizing and driving change within growing companies.
Lenny Rachitsky introduces the How I AI podcast with Claire Vo, focusing on practical AI use cases. Sahil Lavingia of Gumroad demonstrates how he uses AI tools like V0 and Devon to rapidly prototype and implement features, transforming engineering workflows. The discussion covers AI's impact on design, marketing, and customer support, emphasizing the importance of adapting organizational culture to leverage AI effectively. Sahil shares strategies for motivating teams to embrace AI and offers insights into the future of AI-driven productivity.
Varun Mohan, CEO of Windsurf, shares the journey of building an AI code editor used by over 1 million developers in just four months. He discusses pivoting from GPU infrastructure, UI discoveries that tripled adoption, and investing early in a large sales team. Varun also covers how Windsurf empowers non-technical staff, the future of AI in coding, and the importance of continuous innovation.
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.
In this episode, Kevin Weil, CPO at OpenAI, discusses the rapid advancements in AI, emphasizing the importance of product teams adapting to continuous model improvements. He covers topics like AI model evaluation, the enduring role of chat interfaces, and the future of AI-assisted creativity, while also reflecting on his experience with the Libra project at Facebook. Weil shares insights into OpenAI's product development, hiring strategies, and the potential for AI in education, advocating for an optimistic yet realistic approach to AI's transformative impact on society and the workforce.
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...
