The Founder's Foyer with Aishwarya Ashok

00:00 Meet Carlos 01:19 Carlos' Journey into Product Management 02:26 The Inception of Product School 03:52 Challenges and Successes in EdTech 06:47 Evolution of Product School 12:15 Global Reach & Online Education 17:35 Building Product School as a Product 20:26 Importance of Showing Up & Investing in Yourself 22:32 Balancing Community and Business 26:13 Trends in Product Management and AI 29:41 The Impact of AI on Product Management 33:16 The Rise of No-Code Tools & AI Integration 38:37 Final Thoughts and Future of Product Management Being a product builder is like continuously thinking about one’s craft and discovering ways to make it better each time. Product mindset is more of a lifetime learning, and the best way it can be done is finding a set of peers and folks you look up to, and doing it together as a community. Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia is an entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience building products. He founded the Product School in 2014, which is the global leader in product training with a community of over two million members. All of their instructors are seasoned product people working at top Silicon Valley companies including Google, Meta, Netflix, Airbnb, Uber, and Amazon. Prior to Product School, he founded Floqq, the largest online education marketplace in Spanish and Portuguese at the time. We chat about Carlos's journey from his early days in Spain to founding Product School in Silicon Valley, the evolution of the product management community, and the impact of AI and new trends in the product space. Carlos shares his insights on building a community-led company, the importance of continuous learning, and how Product School is reshaping education in the tech industry.

00:00 Introduction to Matthew Dicks 01:19 Matt's Journey into Storytelling 04:46 Teaching Storytelling: From Kids to Corporates 06:55 Essence of a Good Story 15:47 Homework for Life: Capturing Everyday Moments 24:26 The Pickle Story: A Lesson in Specificity 25:02 Hone Personal Storytelling 26:12 Connecting Through Shared Narratives 28:16 Crafting Engaging Beginnings 38:08 Role of Humor in Storytelling 43:35 AI and the Future of Storytelling ----------- All of us love listening to stories from friends, teammates, and sometimes even strangers we meet. What makes us a good listener also pushes us to share our own experiences and thoughts. But when it comes to storytelling, there’s a ton of questions that cloud us up—what to share, what would keep us relevant with our audience, why would someone be interested in what we say? Great stories are crafted, unforgettable, and are uniquely associated with the person who shares—so let’s dive deeper to understand how all of us can become storytellers. Matthew Dicks is a best-selling author, columnist, blogger, podcaster, and teacher. Matt has taught clients like the FBI, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce, MIT, Harvard, & Lego how to tell their best stories. He’s a creator, producer, and co-host of Speak Up Storytelling podcast and he’s also authored the most-famous book, Storyworthy, which has received so much appreciation among the folks in tech. In this episode, Matt discusses the universal strategies applicable to both personal and business storytelling, importance of capturing 'five second moments,' the power of relatability, and how to become more memorable through storytelling. Whether you’re pitching a product or engaging an audience, there are so many techniques we chatted about to craft stories that resonate.

00:00 Welcome to the Founders Foyer 01:45 Embracing Joy, Connections, and Discovery 05:35 The Power of Building Genuine Networks 10:00 Creating a Personal Board of Directors 16:10 Building a Networking Flywheel 29:56 The Roller Coaster of Startup Life (Moving from Big Tech) 31:48 The Power of Storytelling in Business 36:13 Lessons from Poker: Risk and Confidence 42:39 Embracing Fractional Roles 53:24 Building Authentic Communities In the fast-paced world of tech and products, finding joy and building meaningful connections can be as crucial as coding the next big feature. Whether you’re a first-time founder, an avid creator, or an indiehacker, knowing what excites you about building products, learning from doing, and discovering how to navigate the right networks are key. Ha Nguyen is a product lead, venture capitalist, one of the co-founders of Women in Product community, who also embraces fractional work and growing possibilities for the last two decades in tech. She’s currently the founder & Managing Partner of NextStep, supporting early stage founders on their journey to become master operators, company builders, and people leaders. She’s a tournament poker player who made the final table of a World Poker Tour (WPT) tournament. In this episode, Aishwarya and Ha chat about building meaningful connections, embracing joy, and discovering new experiences in the fast-paced tech world. Ha shares her journey—taking a sabbatical for mental health, building a personal board of directors, the value of fractional roles, and the influence of storytelling in leadership.

0:00 - Introduction to Ben Lang 2:10 - Power of Communities 5:30 - Ben Lang's Notion Journey 9:15 - Corona Crash: Bringing People Together 12:45 - Notion: Finding and Empowering Superusers 16:25 - Community Strategies and Challenges 20:00 - Influencer Marketing and Content Creation 25:50 - Metrics and Success Indicators for Scaling Communities 30:10 - Transitioning to Nextplay 35:30 - Building Connections & Belonging 38:45 - What's up for Nextplay Meeting like-minded folks from our circles is such a fun thing to do—the way we exchange ideas, talk to each other, get inspired, and use the accountability that comes with commitment; these are all the upsides to a great group. Building an idea into a product is so much about cultivating taste in people, riding by their motivations, and helping them belong in a group of other similar folks. How to bring people together with the right intent, why to build community and how to thrive those communities for the long game? Ben Lang is a builder and community lead, who enjoys bringing people together and helping them find opportunities and interests to work. He formerly led Notion’s community and was one of the early marketing hires there. Ben loves building stuff, and his template gallery side project attracted nearly 70,000 visits per month even before he made a move to Notion. He is currently building Next Play—the best way to discover what’s next with curated opportunities, gatherings, and content.

00:00 Introduction to Founders Foyer 01:40 The Magic of Learnable Skills 05:45 Building Alt MBA: The Experiment 08:57 The Rise of Live Learning with Maven 17:14 Intuition vs. Rigorous Thinking 30:39 The Importance of Deep Reflection 31:32 Balancing Immediate Action with Thoughtful Planning 32:54 Understanding and Developing Taste 38:22 Communicating Taste and Quality 45:30 Managing Ego in Collaborative Work 48:12 The Power of Super Specific Hows 54:08 Practical Applications of Super Specific Hows Building hype for your ideas, leading the vision, and setting clarity on how to execute on plans are definitely things that we as product builders and creative minds want to get better at. Thinking becomes a great part of this and learning to observe intensely and being able to articulate thoughts are the result of great thinking. So how to communicate and work in a way that’s positive-sum and leveraging? Wes Kao is an entrepreneur, marketer, coach, and advisor who writes at newsletter.weskao.com. She is co-founder of Maven, an edtech company that raised $25M from First Round and Andreessen Horowitz. Previously, she co-founded altMBA with bestselling author Seth Godin. Wes’ essays are deep reads that help you vividly experience the ‘how’ rather than merely stating points. In this episode, Wes and Aishwarya chat about co-founding Alt MBA with Seth Godin to Wes' current role at Maven, differences between lazy and rigorous thinking, and actionable insights on turning 'Je ne sais quoi' into an executable framework. Tune in!

00:00 Meet Sharath Kuruganty: The Creative Builder 01:26 Sharath’s Journey into the Creative Space 02:32 Building Muscle: The Key to Founding Success 03:38 Importance of Community in the Creative Process 08:50 ‘Commitment and the No Excuses’ Mindset 14:36 Balancing Creativity and Mistakes 26:00 Power of Sharing and Building in Public 28:59 Understanding Public Accountability 30:14 Qualifying Questions for Self-Reflection 31:46 Managing Self-Doubt as a Founder 34:44 Journaling and Gratitude 38:34 Exploring the Podcasting Landscape 51:03 Giving Back as a Founder How is it to have ideas constantly bustling inside your mind? The creative spirit is the one that’s so effervescent—one day you want to kickstart a new project and just by the evening, you want to build another idea out. Navigating this path of building things for fun, also aligned with monetization and community goals is definitely a huge challenge. How to get going with this? Sharath Kuruganty is a seasoned creative builder who loves exploring ideas, shipping things quickly, and iterating and learning from feedback. Sharath’s experiences go so wide—from helping creators launch stuff at Product Hunt, to growing communities with OnDeck, interviewing underdogs on his podcast, and building out products like shoutout.so, GuestLab.ai, he’s a complete creator-product package. In this episode, Sharath shares personal anecdotes and practical tips for aspiring founders and creators on staying committed, managing self-doubt, and leveraging the growing podcast space.

00:00 Introducing Dan Shipper & Every 02:45 The Philosophy of Building: Reflecting on Identity and Creation 07:37 Dan's Journey: From Tech Founder to Embracing Writing and AI 15:05 Leveraging AI for Creativity and Efficiency in Media 21:35 Reimagining Reading: How AI Enhances the Experience 25:32 Exploring AI's Personalization and Future Potential 28:18 The Evolution of AI: From Sidekick to Personal Assistant 32:45 AI's Role in Content Creation 35:43 Navigating Self-Doubt and Creative Consistency 42:41 The Influence of 70’s Aesthetics on Creativity 46:34 Physical Inspirations in a Digital Age 49:39 Reflecting on AI, Emotion, and Artistic Expression To think and to create are by far the most satisfying part of work for all of us. As new technologies come in, the crux we keep getting closer to is thinking clearly and creating more frequently. AI has made this process not just upleveled in speed but also introduced a side-kick approach. How to incorporate AI and still build our unique taste? What’s it like to ride with AI and find more individuality with the creative projects and businesses that we build? Dan Shipper is the co-founder of Every, a creative media company that works to make you smarter about technology, productivity, and AI, trusted by almost 70k builders. Dan is a writer, thinker, podcaster, builder behind an AI chatbot, and his current work is filled with playing around with AI and shipping related projects. In this chat, Dan and Aishwarya discuss the transformative impact of AI on creativity, the process of building unique projects, and intertwining personal growth with professional work. Dan elaborates on a recent AI project (internal to Every), Spiral, designed to convert content into different formats effectively, providing insights into his reading habits with AI's assistance.

00:00 Intro to Kristen Berman  01:21 The Genesis of Irrational Labs & Power of Behavioral Economics 02:45 Unlocking User Insights: The Shift in Customer Interviews  05:00 The Art of Designing Effective Incentives & Understanding User Behavior 11:26 Empty Text Boxes to User Empowerment: ChatGPT as an example 13:07 Overcoming Barriers: Making Products More Accessible  19:42 B2B—Understanding Consumer vs. Business Decision-Making 24:27 Product-Led Growth: Strategies and Challenges 25:09 Simplifying B2B User Experiences: A Key to Adoption 26:20 Customer Feedback vs. Actual Behavior: Navigating the Bias 27:17 Case Studies & Learning from Failures 37:41 The Power of Environment in Shaping User Behavior 42:36 Embracing AI: Behavioral Economics in the New Decade 49:23 Concluding Thoughts on Behavioral Science in Product Design Getting feedback and listening to what customers have got to tell us has been the favorite part for all of us product folks. Whether it’s a new app, feature, or even a little shiny interaction, we love getting validation from our audience. We’re in the constant exploration of how best to solve our users’ problems and jumping in as the demi-gods they’d see. But wait, how do we know what exactly goes on in our users’ minds? Like literally brain-reading them. Kristen Berman is the CEO and co-founder of Irrational Labs, a behavioral product design firm. She helps companies like Google, Airbnb, PayPal, Microsoft, and LinkedIn improve their products and services through behavioral design research. Yes yes, the one where she helps builders and founders design, test and scale products by learning behavioral economics. Kristen’s work has been featured in The Stanford Innovation Review, TechCrunch, and Scientific American. Kristen shares her experiences working with tech companies and highlights how behavioral design research aids in creating products that truly resonate with users. She touched upon the evolution of AI tools like ChatGPT and its impact on user experience, psychology of nudging, overcoming biases, and the role of behavioral economics in a new AI-driven era.

00:00 Intro to Peter Yang and Creator Economy 01:21 The Intersection of Product and Creative Tracks 05:14 Finding Your Zone of Genius 12:34 How to Use Humor in Communication 18:30 Defining Success in the Creator Economy 22:04 Crafting Creative Journeys 22:34 Learning from Fellow Creators 23:56 Avoiding Analysis Paralysis 24:22 Packaging Value in Your Work 25:16 Discovering Your Unique Path 26:36 The Importance of Energy in Your Work 27:04 Maximizing Content Creation Efforts 29:49 The Pressure to Become the Next Best Someone 32:50 Building Your Personal Brand 38:42 Exploring AI Experiments with Custom GPTs 42:42 Wrapup If you are a deep thinker, you naturally enjoy the intersection of creating something and seeing it come alive just as you build. The journey of a product builder and creator cross paths—because it’s all about finding an audience and shipping projects that resonate with both you and them. So how do you set foot to build a business around something that you’re proud of creating? How to look at creation as a craft and channelize it with the way the tech world evolves? Peter Yang has spent more than a decade leading product teams at Meta, Amazon, Reddit, and Roblox. He runs a newsletter community called Creator Economy with over 70k+ folks supporting his work. Peter enjoys sharing tips and humor about how to level up your product and creator skills. Peter shares insights from his journey, exploring how creators can leverage their unique skills and interests to carve out niches in the creator economy. From blending humor in content to the transformative impact of AI on personal productivity and the significance of building with a customer-focused mindset—there’s valuable takeaways for anyone looking to make their mark in the creative and product spaces. Follow The Founder's Foyer on: Website - https://www.thefoundersfoyer.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thefoundersfoyer Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/7xov9chTGQ5F9rP5N0J78v Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-founders-foyer-with-aishwarya-ashok/id1628603555 Newsletter - https://aishwarya.substack.com/ Follow Peter on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/petergyang LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petergyang Newsletter: https://creatoreconomy.so/

00:00 Introduction to Lane 01:14 Lane's Nonlinear Career Path 04:09 How Endurance Helps With Success 12:51 Importance of Mindset in Product Building 23:19 Power of Shipping and Learning by Making 26:49 The Origin of the 'Rituals' Concept 29:03 Offer Parties: Gusto’s Ritual with Job Offers 29:51 Transforming Status Quo Rituals 30:58 Impact of Feedback in Product Development 33:01 Influence of French Literary Salons 37:46 Authenticity and Serendipity in Community Building 43:44 Creative People and Connections 46:14 The Ritual Pack: Enhancing Team Meetings and Decision Making 58:01 Intentionality in Building Culture Everyone’s got an interesting journey into crafting their product careers—the best part is to embrace all of our facets and dimensions and see how to bring them into one picture. And over time, that translates to exploring habits that help us stay in those dimensions and keep learning, not just from our own work but from networks around us. How to channelize these non-linear paths, find rituals, and focus on growth while building products?Lane Shackleton is the CPO of Coda. Lane previously led product teams at YouTube and Google, and brings in a set of unique work experiences from before. Lane works with so many creators across the globe and digs deep into empathy, goal setting, and stories.In this episode of The Founder's Foyer, Aishwarya and Lane delve into the concept of product rituals and the importance of habits in fostering product growth. Lane shares insights from his nonlinear career path, his approach towards leadership, the significance of enduring pain, and the role of mindfulness in product development. He highlights the significance of mental models, the role of serendipity, and the importance of maintaining authenticity in community engagement

00:00 Introduction to Aarthi 01:38 A Deep Dive into Creation 02:22 The Importance of Focusing on Value 02:43 The Evolution of The Aarthi and Shriram Show 07:20 Persistence in Creative Work 18:15 The Importance of Genuine Connections 23:22 Curiosity in Learning and Networking 29:21 Consistency in Creative Output 30:27 Handling Criticism and Negative Energy 31:21 Dealing with Self-Doubt 32:39 Power of Positive Surroundings 33:05 Handling Negative Feedback and Emotions 35:28 Journey of Self-Reflection and Growth 39:05 The Power of Techno-Optimism and Entrepreneurship 44:54 Individuality in Creative Pursuits 45:11 Authenticity in Content Creation 52:12 Self-Reflection in Personal Growth 52:54 Authenticity in Business and Personal Interactions ------------- Shipping a piece of work brings inexplicable joy—so much that we learn and grow every time we do it. While this comes with a lot of challenges, adding to the effort is the way tech platforms, market, and so many external factors keep fluctuating. How do we get better at our craft, focus on a creative long game, and win against the odds in the internet world? Aarthi Ramamurthy is entrepreneur, creator, product advisor, angel investor, and someone who has so many other facets. Aarthi runs the Good Time Show along with her partner Sriram, and trust me she has had a fantastic lineup of conversations with tech and creative geniuses. Their dinner table is so full of ideas, sometimes I wonder if it’s even more than the food. She’s currently heading product at Rithum, formerly led teams at Clubhouse, Netflix, Facebook, and Microsoft, while also co-founding two startups.

Sponsor for this episode: Recast, the AI-powered marketing assistant to create podcast highlight videos, show notes, newsletters, and social posts. Try - https://recast.studio/ ----------- All of us like to meet interesting people—we love getting to know about unique experiences, what inspired them, and how they’ve managed to ship something. We also like to be such interesting people—we love to share what we know and the ways by which we’ve created amazing things. What signifies this ‘interesting’ as an identity? How can we come up with ideas that in turn show us the way to both excel at what we do and find more people in the same league of excellence? Does serendipity help us in maximizing our success? Danny Miranda is very busy asking questions to the world's greatest entrepreneurs & thinkers. He runs the famous podcast, The Danny Miranda show, and has a fantastic roster of guests who’ve shared their musings. Danny himself is praised as the best podcaster by so many business stalwarts, and he recently created Art of Interviewing, the go-to course to learn about research, interviewing, and mastering the creative craft. --------------- 00:00 Introduction to Danny 00:49 Sponsor - Recast Studio 03:00 Exploring the Concept of Light and Darkness 05:02 Self-Discovery in Creation 18:18 Power of the Internet and Childhood Influences 25:35 How Grandparents Shape Our Vision and Purpose 29:41 The Long-Game in Content Creation 30:28 Importance of Long-Term Goals 32:11 Art of Creating Content That Ages Well 33:31 Podcast and Press—the Synonymity 35:29 Impact of Social Media on Content 36:26 Journey of Starting a Podcast 39:28 Podcast and Listenership 40:21 Asking Questions in Getting to Know People 52:49 Role of Research in Podcasting 53:45 Why Serendipity Matters ----------------

00:00 Introduction and Welcome 03:10 Adam's Journey into Product and Growth 09:06 The Role of AI in Growth 10:48 Understanding Different Aspects of Growth 14:13 The Impact of Branding on Growth 14:53 The Patreon Rebranding Journey 27:59 The Role of Subscription Models in Consumer Products 32:06 The Importance of Pricing Experimentation 32:13 Understanding Your Customers and Their Pricing Expectations 33:02 The Art of Pricing and Value Proposition 33:43 Exploring Examples of Pricing Strategies in Different Industries 34:45 The Challenges of Monetization in Social Media Platforms 36:44 The Risks of Reckless Pricing Experiments 37:19 Understanding the Vitamin to Painkiller Product Spectrum 39:07 The Importance of Pricing Experiments in SaaS and Consumer Apps 40:18 The Role of User Psychology in Product Engagement 40:40 Strategies to Reduce Churn and Increase User Engagement 41:35 The Importance of Onboarding and User Motivation 45:04 The Role of Gaming Mechanics in User Onboarding 47:50 Understanding the Competition and Alternatives in User Time 55:07 The Intersection of Fatherhood and Professional Life -------------- Sponsor for this episode: Recast, the AI-powered marketing assistant to create podcast highlight videos, show notes, newsletters, and social posts. Try - https://recast.studio/ ----------------- When it comes to building products, the biggest lever that pushes the journey forward is the signal of growth. The type of growth where users feel the joy of retaining with your product, the one where your company metrics such as signups and revenue take a happy upward curve. We must have probably heard “Oh that’s a growth problem” way too many times, whenever there’s a challenge with pushing the product to the wider world. So then how does one cross this chasm and see the better sides of growth? Adam Fishman has built some of the fastest-growing consumer companies like Patreon, Lyft, and Imperfect Foods where he served across various roles like CPO, VP of Product & Head of Growth. From driving a company’s critical pivot and rebrand to helping a company scale to $100M revenue—Adam has been the face behind core product growth phases. He is the author of the FishmanAF Newsletter and the creator and host of the Startup Dad Podcast. The conversation traverses from building products that grow, dealing with 'growth problems', the role of branding in a company's growth, intricate aspects of consumer applications, and transitioning to subscription models. Adam also touches upon the psychology affecting product engagement and shares insights on reducing churn. Towards the end, he delves into his podcast 'Startup Dad Podcast' and the unique blend of professional and personal topics he explores through it. Tune in to expand your understanding of product growth strategies and the ongoing shifts in the tech industry.

0:00 Intro to Matt Munson's work 03:51 Story of ups and downs in starting up 08:20 Moving to coaching founders and CEOs & learnings 12:26 Tackling intellectual loneliness and building a trusted community 25:42 Freedom to experiment & experience outcomes 30:22 How a sense of separation from the work fosters creativity 36:41 Embracing creative play and curiosity for self-awareness 40:12 How can founders figure out their maximum focus areas 44:25 Balancing leadership with company growth 45:46 Diversifying identities to not get locked up with beliefs 53:57 Why 'rest' is termed as a dirty word at work and how it shouldn't be -------------Sponsor for this episode: Recast, the AI-powered marketing assistant to create podcast highlight videos, show notes, newsletters, and social posts. Try - https://recast.studio/ ------------- Living the founder or builder life is like a permanent oscillation between “I feel so good” and “I feel shitty”—and this is something common with creative people that it often gets passed off with a laugh. But what would it be like to take notice of our moods and energy patterns, see what amplifies our effort and what saps out that enthusiasm? Is there a way to change the outlook to our own thinking and observations, just as we are high on potential to achieve something? How to obsess less about us to learn more about us? Matt Munson is the founder & CEO coach at Sanity Labs. Matt draws on his own experience as a venture-backed founder to help other founders, CEOs, and product builders navigate the journey of leadership, self-awareness, and team building. Prior to this, Matt co-founded Twenty20, the world’s largest crowd-sourced commercial image catalog. Tune in!

Being a founder or product person calls for enjoying the ride even when things are uncertain. While grit and passion are the regulars, it takes a few more skills like competence, agency, clarity of thought, to be able to navigate that uncertainty. And this means, you’ve got to be ready to embrace challenges, relearn some of what you seemingly thought you knew already, and find new pieces of information to put together. First things first, how to get started with all of this? Shreyas Doshi is a seasoned product leader and presently a fantastic advisor to many founders across the globe. Shreyas formerly led product teams at Stripe, Yahoo, Google, Twitter, and is most known to this world as a product coach who writes detailed ‘threads’ on many unsaid and important topics. In this episode, Shreyas and Aishwarya discuss about: Distilling product knowledge through observations, shared vocabulary & how it connects teams without blame, human comprehension and the LLM in our minds, power of 'Why' over 'What' and 'How much', high IQ & cognitive empathy, recognizing the inner creative resistance, combating the 'product builder' fear with actionable steps, signals of growth for better and clear thinking, unlearning traditional programming of the mind for better evaluation. Sponsor for this episode: Recast, the AI-powered marketing assistant to create podcast highlight videos, show notes, newsletters, and social posts. Try - https://recast.studio/ [ Note: For folks who enjoy Shreyas' thoughts just like me, you can check out his product management course on Maven. I loved taking this up and the best part was to meet a bunch of brilliant PMs through the cohort. Learn More: https://bit.ly/shreyas-course ]

Building products is such a fun journey—especially if users are involved early in the process that it feels like co-creating and riding the wave with them. There’s also racing against the advancements in technology, thanks to AI’s hypergrowth every passing day. So how do you balance the ride and race, when do you know it’s time to take a dive or a turn and how do you account for changing markets? Yana Welinder is the founder and CEO of Kraftful, an Al copilot that helps teams build better products by listening to user feedback. A YC alum and a Stanford fellow, she formerly led product teams at IFTTT, Carbon, and Wikimedia Foundation. Yana loves backing up founders and she currently runs GenAIFounders community and she invests into promising ideas via Pioneer fund. A true 0-1 person and an amazing friend in the product community. Yana and Aishwarya chatted about: Early-stage product: When & how to pivot, Handling customers' emotional quotient during a pivot, Experimenting product updates with early users, Setting up a community on X (Twitter) for PMs, Revisiting product strategy for dynamically changing markets, Possibility of AI in multiple domains & what would stay, Scope and future of product management, How to get started with LLMs & GenAI, AI & creativity for artists

Sponsor: Build in Public Fellowship by Karthik Puvvada (KP) - Apply to the program - https://buildinpublicfellowship.com/ There’s so much joy in being able to think clearly—whether it’s cracking a tough decision, understanding a complex concept, or even letting go of bottled up confusions. When creating and shipping stuff, it’s very important to introspect on what’s holding us away from this clarity of thought. And the biggest plus is being able to do this as a community, getting to know others’ perspectives, and intellectually growing our knowledge. Anne-Laure is the founder of Ness Labs, a learning community with over 50,000+ makers. She’s a neuroscientist, educator, and soon-to-be author. She writes and speaks about mindful productivity and encourages founders and builders to derive first principles in thinking. Quitting corporate & choosing unconventional career lanes, Kickstarting Ness Labs and how it works, Creator of information vs. collector of information, Building the newsletter in public, Why 5-year career plans are outdated, Embracing serendipity in exploring interests, Liminal creativity and redefining goals, How community thinking accelerates growth, Tools for thought: keeping human consciousness intact, Distress vs Eustress: How to differentiate

There’s so much in parallel with tech and art—for instance, innovation starts with small steps, iteratively leading up to radical explorations. A lot of people today blend creative arts together with the principles grounded in ethics and emerging tech. To be at the intersection of all of this creativity and build versatile careers across entertainment media, business, and law, only teaches us that anything is just a step away from learning afresh. Abigail Hing Wen has mastered technology and storytelling, formerly leading emerging AI tech at Intel. She is a New York Times Best Selling Author, a media producer and filmmaker too. She writes and speaks about tech, AI ethics, women's leadership, and transforming culture. In this episode, Abigail and Aishwarya chat about Legal to Tech to Writing and Filmmaking, trade-off between difficult decisions, community and belief circles in entertainment industry, AI founders and foundational questions to consider, how to combine core tech into media and fiction writing, consumerization of data, fairness, and tech ethics, AI prompts + entertainment and film content, finding a unique voice by combining creative pursuits, and building audiences over different generations Sponsor: Build in Public Fellowship by Karthik Puvvada (KP) - Apply by Aug 7th for the Cohort 3 - https://buildinpublicfellowship.com/

What’s the hardest part about starting up, you ask? Plenty of them. And topping the charts, amongst the top three things, would be—nailing the branding and go-to-market strategy. While our entire focus is on the target audience all through the stage of building the product, there are quite a number of slips and shaky edges that take our path away from the ideal audience. So how exactly to build a brand, get those first few users to understand our product, nailing the messaging, and getting better at distribution? Arielle Jackson is currently the Marketer in Residence at First Round Capital. Arielle helped grow Gmail, Square, and Cover during their early stages—whether it was hitting 1M+ users or getting distribution to 30k doorsteps. She's worked with 100+ early stage companies — including Patreon, Loom, Front, Bowery, and even Maven — on their foundational messaging. In this episode, Arielle and Aishwarya chat about how psychology and marketing are related, being the first marketer at Gmail, working on rival brands and difference in positioning, how to associate 'personality' with a brand, five attributes to pick the tone and style of a brand, what constitutes a brand—elements of good branding, fun stories from naming new brands, the domain game—.com, .co, .ai, and more, get rid of jargons in websites—Cinderella Spectrum & Bar Test, how solopreneurs can start with their marketing efforts, and positioning vs messaging.

Finding the right set of peers, building the dream team to work towards a vision, setting the table for growth—all of these are interrelated from the perspective of strengthening teams. However, there’s a layer of science behind all of the best performing companies and the humans who’re a part of those teams. When the tools from the biological sciences meet the business world, there’s a ton of possibilities that open up—from understanding one’s personality and communicating better to even making right decisions at the workplace. Evan LaPoint is the founder of Core Sciences, a platform that helps teams accelerate to a peak performance state. Evan has been an entrepreneur in the past as well, and he sold his company Satellite to Adobe, and before that merging his firm Marketing Alpha with Search Discovery. pushed Evan along analytics, tech, and biological sciences, data silos that we end up with in and how to tackle, internal customer vs external customer narrative, how cognitive thinking separates people's performance, concept of "intuitives" and "semi-intuitives" traits of people, hiring for mindset > skillset, conscientiousness and working mindset, learning styles and personalities for a team, why ideas have a greater value than execution, vision vs fantasy, and how great thinkers obtain clarity.