Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Edwin Chen, founder and CEO of Surge AI, has an impressive background as a former research scientist at Google, Facebook, and Twitter. He shares how Surge achieved over $1 billion in revenue with fewer than 100 employees by focusing on quality over hype. The conversation dives into AI benchmarking flaws, the significance of human judgment in model success, and the evolving landscape of reinforcement learning environments. Edwin also discusses his contrarian approach to company growth and why he believes AGI is still a decade away.

Tomer Cohen, the chief product officer at LinkedIn, discusses his innovative Full Stack Builder program, which merges AI with product development. He reveals how traditional models have become inefficient and introduces a new approach to empower cross-functional teams. Tomer emphasizes the significance of culture, creativity, and specialized AI agents in building products faster. He also shares insights on adapting to the rapid shift in skills needed for the future workforce and provides valuable advice for companies looking to innovate in their product processes.

Jeanne DeWitt Grosser, COO of Vercel and former leader at Stripe and Google, shares insights into the evolving landscape of go-to-market strategies in the AI era. She discusses the emergence of GTM engineers and their role in automating sales workflows. The conversation touches on customer behavior, emphasizing that buyers often seek to minimize risks. Jeanne also advises on the importance of aligning sales with product development, and how segmentation can guide effective outreach while fostering collaboration across teams.

Rachel Lockett, an executive coach and former HR leader at Stripe and Pinterest, shares insights on emotional intelligence and leadership. She discusses when to coach versus give advice, introducing the GROW technique to empower others. Rachel emphasizes avoiding burnout by aligning roles with strengths and suggests practical energy tracking methods. She also explores the dynamics of co-founder relationships, advocating for regular check-ins and effective communication strategies to transform conflicts into growth opportunities.

Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Flickr and Slack, dives into the essence of product design and leadership. He shares frameworks like 'utility curves' to prioritize feature investment and introduces concepts such as 'the owner’s delusion,' emphasizing the importance of user-centric thinking. Stewart discusses how small conveniences can spark growth, recounts lessons from Slack's onboarding, and stresses the need for continuous improvement in user experience. His insights on generosity in leadership and managing pivots provide valuable takeaways for any product builder.

Dr. Fei-Fei Li, often called the 'godmother of AI,' has been instrumental in pivotal AI advancements, notably creating ImageNet. In this conversation, she shares insights on world models and spatial intelligence, highlighting their significance for the future of AI beyond language models. Fei-Fei emphasizes the importance of human responsibility in the age of AI and introduces her new product, Marble, which facilitates the creation of navigable 3D worlds. She also discusses the unique challenges in robotics and encourages everyone to engage with AI, regardless of their field.

Grant Lee, Co-founder and CEO of Gamma, shares insights from their AI-driven presentation tool that soared to $100M ARR with a team of just 30. He reveals how a brutal investor rejection fueled their focus on growth and product-market fit. Key topics include reimagining onboarding to deliver instant value, leveraging over 1,000 micro-influencers for organic growth, and the delicate balance between brand and performance marketing. Grant emphasizes the importance of an experimentation mindset and hiring exceptional talent to build a sustainable business.

Jen Abel, a seasoned enterprise sales leader and co-founder of Jellyfish, shares her expertise on scaling B2B sales from $1M to $10M ARR. She debunks the myth of the mid-market, asserting that targeting tier-one logos yields strong references and roadmap influence. Abel highlights the importance of vision-casting instead of problem-solving to win enterprise deals and encourages founders to charge higher ACVs for better executive engagement. She also discusses strategic hiring, creative deal crafting, and the powerful role of tailored outreach in enterprise sales.

Melanie Perkins, Co-CEO and co-founder of Canva, transformed a dream into a $42 billion reality despite facing over 100 investor rejections and a challenging two-year technical rewrite. She discusses her unique 'column B' thinking, which focuses on bold visions rather than limitations. Listeners learn about the importance of setting 'crazy big goals,' maintaining team morale during tough times, and her strategic approach to fundraising. Melanie’s forward-looking vision for 2050 emphasizes the power of imagination to inspire positive change.

Dhanji R. Prasanna, Chief Technology Officer at Block, has managed a massive engineering team driving AI innovation. He reveals how Block’s open-source agent, Goose, saves employees significant time weekly. Dhanji discusses the surprising productivity gains for non-technical teams and the importance of leadership in adopting AI tools. He shares insights on code quality versus product success, the impact of organizational changes, and lessons learned from previous product failures. Dhanji emphasizes starting small with projects to foster innovation.