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Most candidates treat recruiter calls like a box-checking step. But the candidates who consistently land offers treat recruiters like strategic partners - and use them to get real leverage throughout the process. In this episode of Supra Insider , Marc Baselga and Ben Erez sit down with our repeat guest, Anneli Scopazzi (Boulevard Talent; former recruiting leader across Palantir, Figma, and Notion) to break down what recruiters are actually incentivized by, what they’re looking for in the recrui...
Nickey Skarstad, Duolingo's Director of Product, reveals how the company balances rapid experimentation with a high bar for product quality, particularly in the age of AI. She details Duolingo's product review process, "hot trash" forums, and extensive dogfooding, emphasizing the critical role of developing strong product taste and thoughtful communication around AI to build successful consumer experiences.
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube What actually changes inside a product and engineering org when a company commits to becoming AI-native—not as a side project, but as the new operating system? In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben sit down with Gaurav Hardikar , VP of Product at HomeLight , to unpack the company’s ambitious transformation: an executive team hackathon, ten AI initiatives across tech debt and product debt, and a completely new way of scoping, shipping, and collabor...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube If you’ve been hearing phrases like “taste is the only thing that will matter for PMs in the AI era” but aren’t sure what that actually means —or more importantly, how to build it—this episode is for you. In this conversation, Marc and Ben sit down with Sachin Rekhi , founder, former LinkedIn product leader, and creator of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, to unpack the real mechanics of taste: where it comes from, how to sharpen it, and why it’s already the defin...
Jacob Bank, founder of Relay.app, reveals how his 10-person company leverages over 300 AI agents to transform product development. He discusses the crucial shift to treating AI agents like employees, detailing how to write job descriptions, manage performance, and address common skepticism. The episode provides a practitioner's framework for implementing AI agents today, covering topics from enterprise adoption to mitigating agent drift and maximizing value.
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube If you’ve ever wondered whether you could teach a course, how to validate demand for your expertise, or how AI is reshaping learning and personal brand building, this episode is for you. In this conversation, Marc and Ben sit down with Claire Chen , leading Growth at Maven and the person who originally recruited Ben to teach on the platform. Together, they unpack the real mechanics behind becoming a successful instructor - how to choose a topic, validate d...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube If you’re a product leader trying to navigate the shift from single-product focus to a broader portfolio—or wondering how AI is reshaping execution, team design, and strategic planning—this episode is for you. In this episode of Supra Insider , Marc and Ben sit down with Brian Balfour , CEO of Reforge , to explore how product orgs can expand into multi-product portfolios without losing focus, momentum, or clarity. Brian shares how his team shipped five new...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube What happens when a creative side project starts to gain traction—but the founders have different ideas about how far to take it? In this unusually raw episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben invite their longtime friend and coach Josh Herzig-Marx to facilitate a live coaching session—on the podcast. Together, they explore the tension between friendship and business, how to manage an unequal split in effort, and whether to go “all in” on Insider Loops or pr...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube Whether you’re searching for your next role or hiring in a market where talent is scarce and expectations are sky-high—this episode is for you. Marc and Ben sit down with Anneli Scopazzi , founder of Boulevard Recruiting and former recruiting leader at Figma, Notion, and Palantir, to unpack how recruiting dynamics have shifted in early-stage startups. From the pressure to do more with fewer hires to the rising importance of domain expertise and “startup re...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube What does “AI-native” actually look like inside a company — not in theory, but in practice?In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben sit down with James Dillard , former YouTube and Stripe PM, who recently spent three months embedded at Roo Code , an AI-native startup building coding agents that can write and review production code. James shares what it was like to join a 10-person team where everyone contributes to the codebase — from designers to co...
In this episode, Gokul Rajaram discusses why many senior product leaders are shifting back to individual contributor roles, especially in AI-native companies, emphasizing the changed leverage equation and the critical need for hands-on AI experience. He shares insights on effective product execution through prototypes, prioritizing customer outcomes over features, and the importance of talent density and founder vision when choosing a company. Gokul also provides advice on approaching a new IC role with a low-ego, high-energy, and execution-focused mindset.
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube How do you disagree with your CEO, especially a visionary founder, without putting your job or credibility at risk? In this episode of Supra Insider , Marc and Ben sit down with Elena Luneva (CPO, advisor, and executive coach) to unpack one of the most common, emotionally fraught challenges in product leadership: what to do when your CEO wants to change direction based on a gut instinct, and you disagree? Drawing from Elena’s coaching experience and her ow...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube If you’ve ever considered turning your expertise into a scalable product—or wondered what it actually takes to build and sell a useful AI copilot—this episode is for you. In this episode, Ben shares the full behind-the-scenes story of how he packaged his product management knowledge into a sellable, high-leverage AI Practice Copilot . From initial validation to prototyping in Claude to vibe coding in Cursor and shipping using various AI tools, he walks thr...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube What does it mean to truly be an “AI-native” company? And how are product roles evolving when PMs are expected to both execute faster and make sharper strategic decisions? In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben sit down with Adam Fishman —host of the Startup Dad podcast and longtime product leader and advisor —to unpack the key themes from Reforge ’s recent AI Product Summit in San Francisco. Adam shares insights from conversations with leaders at ...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube What if interviewing for a PM job at Stripe, Uber, or Figma didn’t feel like walking into the unknown? In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben take you behind the scenes of building Insider Loops —a new set of interview prep guides designed to give candidates the inside track at some of tech’s most competitive companies. They break down why they saw the opportunity, how they rapidly prototyped and shipped their first guides, and what they learned fr...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube What if personal finance wasn’t just about saving more or investing better—but about designing a life that feels meaningful, intentional, and aligned with your values? In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben sit down with Zach Teutsch , founder of Values Added Financial , to explore a radically human approach to wealth management. Instead of fixating solely on net worth, Zach helps high earners and tech professionals reframe their relationship with ...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube If you’ve wondered how much AI is really helping engineers - or feared it might replace them - this episode is for you. In this conversation, Marc and Ben sit down with Nick Meehan , a senior engineer and longtime collaborator, to explore how AI coding tools like Cursor, Claude, and Codex are reshaping day-to-day engineering work. Nick shares how his process evolved from copy-pasting into ChatGPT to using AI as a debugging partner, thought collaborator, an...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube Think a “portfolio career” makes family life chaotic? Ben argues the opposite. In this special episode of Supra Insider, Ben shares a more personal side of his journey in a conversation originally recorded on the Startup Dad podcast with Adam Fishman . From raising his daughter Gaia (with help from George, the family’s golden retriever) to navigating solo parenting in New York without nearby family, Ben opens up about the joys and challenges of fatherhood....
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube AI is transforming the way product teams approach customer research—but what should remain human, and what can be handed off to AI agents? In this episode, Marc and Ben sit down with Aaron Cannon, co-founder of Outset, to explore the evolving role of AI in discovery and usability testing. Aaron unpacks how AI-moderated research enables unprecedented speed and scale while preserving depth, why intuition remains critical for building great products, and how ...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube What if you could cut your QA cycles from days to minutes—and draft PRDs that actually update themselves as your product evolves? In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben sit down with Amir M , cofounder of Humblytics, to explore how he’s running a two-person startup across engineering, QA, and product using Cursor and Model Context Protocols (MCPs). Amir shares how he builds context-rich workflows, turns documentation into living systems, and uses a...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube As AI agents become the new interface for work, a major question looms: how will your product connect into this ecosystem? In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben sat down with Reid Robinson , product manager leading AI at Zapier. They talked about the rise of Model Context Protocols (MCPs) — the new standard for connecting AI agents to tools and data sources. Reid explains the fundamentals of MCP clients vs. servers, why the standard is gaining tra...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube What happens to product management when building becomes nearly frictionless—and AI threatens to replace the “busy work” PMs have traditionally done? In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben sit down with legendary product coach Rich Mironov to explore the shifting value of product leadership in the AI era. They unpack why great PMs must now double down on customer insights, business understanding, and organizational influence rather than execution—a...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube What if the key to showing up as a great leader had nothing to do with your title, metrics, or credentials—and everything to do with knowing who you are outside of work? In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben sit down with executive coach Charles Ruiz to explore how leaders can shift from external validation to authentic presence. Charles shares the origins of his mantra “Presence over Preference,” his Four Cs framework (Core, Craft, Community, Cre...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube What if walking away from your polished product career was the exact move you needed to grow? In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben sit down with Jori Bell to explore her unconventional journey from PM roles at Spotify, SoundCloud, and Audible to building a coaching practice, curating intimate community spaces, and teaching at Cornell Tech. After two years of self-exploration and reinvention, Jori is now bringing her rediscovered superpowers—curio...
Listen now: Spotify , Apple and YouTube What if you had a personalized AI toolkit—not just a chatbot—that actually remembered your projects, your workflows, and even your family’s preferences? In this episode, Marc and Ben sit down with Mike Bal , a product leader experimenting at the frontier of AI tooling. Mike shares how he built a local memory system for Claude using Model Context Protocols (MCPs), enabling persistent knowledge graphs that connect everything from his product designs to his f...
What if you could access a personalized career coach anytime—one who remembers your goals, understands your tendencies, and gives you thoughtful, actionable guidance? In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben sit down with Kavita Anand , a product leader at NewtonX, to explore how she built her own AI-based career coach using tools like Claude and ChatGPT—and then taught 30+ women at her company how to do the same. She breaks down the exact system she used: crafting a system prompt, running...
If you’re navigating today’s brutally competitive PM job market and wondering what “good” looks like, this episode will become your playbook. In this episode, Ben moderates a candid panel with three veteran product hiring managers: Nickey Skarstad – Director of Product, Duolingo (now leading Duolingo Math) Stephanie J. Neill – Head of Product, Stripe Tax Chantal Cox – Director of Product, LTK (LiketoKnow.it creator platform) Together, they reverse-engineer every stage of their 2025 hiring funnel...
If you’ve ever launched an AI feature and later realized it wasn’t quite ready—or struggled to define what “quality” even looks like in an AI product—this episode is for you. In this episode of Supra Insider , Marc and Ben sit down with Aman Khan , Head of Product of Arize AI and a leading voice in AI product evaluation. Aman has helped dozens of teams—from scrappy startups to massive consumer platforms—build systematic approaches for evaluating LLM-powered features. Together, they explore the d...
What actually sets you apart in a world where AI can do more and more of your job? In this episode, Marc and Ben are joined by Hilary Gridley —Head of Core Product at WHOOP and instructor of the Maven course How to Be a Supermanager with AI —to unpack how great product leaders can use AI to magnify their strengths instead of dulling them. Hilary breaks down her approach to time allocation, sharing how she dissects messy, ambiguous work into its component parts and uses AI as a thinking partner—n...
If you’ve ever found yourself torn between chasing a long-term product vision and urgently responding to customer demands—or wondered how to strike the right balance between innovation and pragmatism—this episode is for you. In this episode of Supra Insider, Marc and Ben sit down with Troy Sultan and Austin Cooley , co-founders of Guide , to explore how they transformed their entire product philosophy from idealistic "big bets" into rapid, incremental solutions based on direct customer feedback....
