Building AI-Native Software With No Rules | Christopher O’Donnell
Mostly Growth
What 'AI-Native' Really Means
Christopher defines AI-native, why there's 'no rules' now, and how teams must relearn product development with new tools.
Christopher O’Donnell, Founder and CEO of Day.ai and former Chief Product Officer at HubSpot, joins CJ Gustafson and Kyle Poyar to explore what it takes to build an AI-native CRM from first principles in a moment when product development has “no rules.” He reflects on shifting from leading massive teams to coding daily, why CRM needs to return to serving CEOs rather than being trapped in operational bottlenecks, and how blending familiar interfaces with powerful AI assistants can reset user expectations. O’Donnell digs into market selection, product-market fit in rapidly evolving categories, agent-based pricing, and the cultural advantage of staying close to customers rather than the industry echo chamber, all while sharing candid stories about creativity, ecosystems, and the accelerating pace of AI-driven product craftsmanship.
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SPONSORS:
Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com
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LINKS:
Day.ai: https://day.ai/
Christopher on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markitecht/
Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com
CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/
Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/
Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/
Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/
Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/
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RELATED EPISODES:
OpenAI’s Impossible Math: $500B or Bust?
The Product-Market Fit Treadmill | Brian Balfour Explains
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Preview and Intro
00:01:10 Sponsors – Metronome | Pulley
00:03:31 Introducing Christopher O’Donnell
00:05:20 From Music to Software
00:07:10 Leaving HubSpot to Start Again
00:09:00 Inspiring Teams at Scale
00:10:50 What It Means to Build AI-Native
00:12:40 How Location Shapes Careers
00:14:30 Relearning in an AI-First Era
00:16:20 Shipping and Iterating With AI
00:18:10 The App as the Main Character
00:20:00 Using AI to Pressure-Test Decisions
00:21:50 Rethinking CRM Expectations
00:23:40 Choosing a Hybrid CRM Approach
00:25:30 Entering a Massive Market
00:27:20 PMF in the AI Era
00:29:10 The CRM Status Quo and Its Defenders
00:31:00 How CRM Lost Its Purpose
00:32:50 Rethinking Seat-Based Pricing
00:34:40 Why Credit Models Confuse Buyers
00:36:30 Flat-Rate Plans and Ecosystem Dynamics
00:38:20 Enterprises Sitting on AI Commits
00:40:10 Conference Room Dystopia
00:42:00 Getting Burned by Ecosystems
00:43:50 Trying Amazon’s Rufus
00:45:40 Suno and the Music-Tech Debate
00:46:28 Show Outro
#MostlyGrowthPodcast #AInative #CRMinnovation #ProductLeadership #StartupFounders
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