Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky are the co-creators of the Design Sprint (the famous five-day product innovation process) and authors of the bestselling book Sprint. After decades of working with over 300 startups in the earliest stages, they discovered that most startups fail not because they can’t build, but because they build the wrong thing. The very beginning of a startup is your highest-leverage moment, and most teams waste months or years by skipping a few critical early questions. Jake and John developed the Foundation Sprint to help startups validate ideas and compress months of work into just two days. What you’ll learn: 1. The step-by-step Foundation Sprint process that compresses three or four months of validation into two days—including templates you can use immediately 2. Why differentiation is the #1 predictor of startup success (with the 2x2 framework that you can use with your team) 3. The three fundamental questions every founder should answer before writing a line of code 4. The “note and vote” technique that eliminates groupthink and gets honest answers from your colleagues 5. The seven “magic lenses” for choosing between multiple product ideas 6. The biggest mistake engineers make when building with AI tools 7. The paradox of speed: why “building nothing first” can get you to product-market fit faster — Brought to you by: Brex [https://www.brex.com/product/business-account?ref_code=bmk_dp_brand1H25_ln_new_fs]—The banking solution for startups: https://www.brex.com/product/business-account?ref_code=bmk_dp_brand1H25_ln_new_fs [https://www.brex.com/product/business-account?ref_code=bmk_dp_brand1H25_ln_new_fs] Paragon [https://www.useparagon.com/lenny]—Ship every SaaS integration your customers want: https://www.useparagon.com/lenny [https://www.useparagon.com/lenny] Coda [https://coda.io/lenny]—The all-in-one collaborative workspace: https://coda.io/lenny [https://coda.io/lenny] — Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-foundation-sprint-jake-knapp-and-john-zeratsky [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-foundation-sprint-jake-knapp-and-john-zeratsky] — My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/167485876/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/167485876/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation] — Where to find Jake Knapp: • X: https://twitter.com/jakek [https://twitter.com/jakek] • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-knapp/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-knapp/] • Website: https://jakeknapp.com/ [https://jakeknapp.com/] — Where to find John Zeratsky: • X: https://twitter.com/jazer [https://twitter.com/jazer] • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnzeratsky/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnzeratsky/] • Website: https://johnzeratsky.com/ [https://johnzeratsky.com/] — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (04:41) Origins of the Design Sprint (11:06) The Foundation Sprint process (14:40) Phase one: The basics (16:57) Case study: Latchet (28:50) Phase two: Differentiation (36:24) The importance of differentiation (40:15) Thoughts on price differentiation (43:37) Case study: Mellow (46:04) Custom differentiators (49:30) The mini manifesto (52:02) Phase three: Approach to the project (54:50) Magic lenses activity (01:02:39) Prototyping and testing (01:10:00) Real-world examples and success stories (01:15:15) Motivation behind The Foundation Sprint (01:17:15) The outcome of the sprint: The founding hypothesis (01:19:28) The Design Sprint (01:28:19) The role of AI in prototyping (01:36:50) Final thoughts and resources — Referenced: • Introducing the Foundation Sprint: From the creators of the Design Sprint: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/introducing-the-foundation-sprint [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/introducing-the-foundation-sprint] • Making time for what matters | Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (authors of Sprint and Make Time, co-founders of Character Capital): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-time-for-what-matters-jake [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/making-time-for-what-matters-jake] • Eli Blee-Goldman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-blee-goldman/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-blee-goldman/] • Character Capital: https://www.character.vc/ [https://www.character.vc/] • Character Labs: https://www.character.vc/labs [https://www.character.vc/labs] • Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/ [https://www.etsy.com/] • Shopify: https://www.shopify.com/ [https://www.shopify.com/] • Naming expert shares the process behind creating billion-dollar brand names like Azure, Vercel, Windsurf, Sonos, Blackberry, and Impossible Burger | David Placek (Lexicon Branding): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/naming-expert-david-placek [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/naming-expert-david-placek] • Sonos: https://www.sonos.com/ [https://www.sonos.com/] • Vercel: https://vercel.com/ [https://vercel.com/] • Windsurf: https://windsurf.com/ [https://windsurf.com/] • April Dunford on product positioning, segmentation, and optimizing your sales process: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/april-dunford-on-product-positioning [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/april-dunford-on-product-positioning] • Positioning: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/positioning [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/positioning] • 10 things we know to be true: https://about.google/company-info/philosophy/ [https://about.google/company-info/philosophy/] • Gandalf: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandalf [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandalf] • Frodo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frodo_Baggins [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frodo_Baggins] • Mordor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordor [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordor] • 35 years of product design wisdom from Apple, Disney, Pinterest, and beyond | Bob Baxley: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/35-years-of-product-design-wisdom-bob-baxley [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/35-years-of-product-design-wisdom-bob-baxley] • The Primal Mark: How the Beginning Shapes the End in the Development of Creative Ideas: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/primal-mark-how-beginning-shapes-end-development-creative-ideas [https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/publications/primal-mark-how-beginning-shapes-end-development-creative-ideas] • Base44: https://base44.com/ [https://base44.com/] • Solo founder, $80M exit, 6 months: The Base44 bootstrapped startup success story | Maor Shlomo: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-base44-bootstrapped-startup-success-story-maor-shlomo [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-base44-bootstrapped-startup-success-story-maor-shlomo] • Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/ [https://meet.google.com/] • Blue Bottle Coffee: https://bluebottlecoffee.com [https://bluebottlecoffee.com] • Reclaim: https://reclaim.ai/ [https://reclaim.ai/] • The official Foundation Sprint + Design Sprint template: https://www.character.vc/miro-template [https://www.character.vc/miro-template] • Rippling: https://www.rippling.com/ [https://www.rippling.com/] • Latchet: https://latchet.com/ [https://latchet.com/] • Mellow: http://getmellow.com/ [http://getmellow.com/] • AxionOrbital: https://axionorbital.space/ [https://axionorbital.space/] — Recommended books: • Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days: https://www.amazon.com/Sprint-audiobook/dp/B019R2DQIY [https://www.amazon.com/Sprint-audiobook/dp/B019R2DQIY] • Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day: https://www.amazon.com/Make-Time-Focus-Matters-Every/dp/0525572422 [https://www.amazon.com/Make-Time-Focus-Matters-Every/dp/0525572422] • Click: How to Make What People Want: https://www.amazon.com/Click-Make-What-People-Want/dp/1668072114 [https://www.amazon.com/Click-Make-What-People-Want/dp/1668072114] Production and marketing by https://penname.co/ [https://penname.co/]. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com [podcast@lennyrachitsky.com]. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=show-notes-no-free-preview-language]

Maor Shlomo is the founder of Base44, an AI-powered app builder that he bootstrapped to an over $80 million acquisition by Wix in just six months. As a solo founder (with severe ADHD), he hit $1 million ARR just three weeks after launch and grew the product to more than 400,000 users, all while navigating two wars in Israel and never raising a dollar of outside funding. What you’ll learn: 1. The growth playbook that took Base44 from three friends to 400,000 users without spending any money on marketing 2. How he hasn’t written a single line of front-end code in three months—and how to structure your code repository to make it easier for AI to write your code 3. His AI productivity stack that allowed him to compete against heavily funded competitors 4. Why being a solo founder in AI might be the ultimate advantage (and the wedding story that almost killed the business) 5. The story of signing the $80M acquisition deal while war broke out with Iran 6. How to identify when to sell vs. stay independent (and why Maor chose acquisition despite being highly profitable) 7. The counterintuitive product decision that tripled activation by removing a “helpful” feature 8. How building in public on LinkedIn drove more growth than any paid channel — Brought to you by: Sauce [http://sauce.app/lenny]—Turn customer pain into product revenue: https://sauce.app/lenny [https://sauce.app/lenny] Dscout [https://www.dscout.com/]—The UX platform to capture insights at every stage: from ideation to production: https://www.dscout.com/ [https://www.dscout.com/] Contentsquare [https://contentsquare.com/lenny/]—Create better digital experiences: https://contentsquare.com/lenny/ [https://contentsquare.com/lenny/] — Transcript: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-base44-bootstrapped-startup-success-story-maor-shlomo [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-base44-bootstrapped-startup-success-story-maor-shlomo] — My biggest takeaways (for paid newsletter subscribers): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/167384119/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/i/167384119/my-biggest-takeaways-from-this-conversation] — Where to find Maor Shlomo: • X: https://x.com/ms_base44 [https://x.com/ms_base44] • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maor-shlomo-1088b4144/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/maor-shlomo-1088b4144/] — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com] • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan [https://twitter.com/lennysan] • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/] — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to Maor and Base44 (08:16) The origin story: how Base44 came to be (14:55) Bootstrapping and solo founding: challenges and insights (22:52) Productivity hacks and tech stack for solo founders (27:23) How to get started using Base44 (28:47) Thoughts on raising money (34:05) Distribution in the age of AI (36:09) Ambition and goals (40:05) Growth strategies: from first users to thousands (51:32) Building in public (57:42) The solo founder journey (01:00:23) Community support (01:03:23) Hackathons and partnerships (01:06:42) The importance of velocity in product development (01:08:20) Technical stack and infrastructure insights (01:15:24) Activation lessons (01:18:19) The acquisition journey with Wix (01:25:14) Final thoughts and advice for founders — Referenced: • Base44: https://base44.com/ [https://base44.com/] • Retool: https://retool.com/ [https://retool.com/] • Tzofim: https://www.israelscouts.org/ [https://www.israelscouts.org/] • Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/ [https://www.ycombinator.com/] • RescueTime: https://www.rescuetime.com/ [https://www.rescuetime.com/] • Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/ [https://www.cursor.com/] • Wix: https://www.wix.com/ [https://www.wix.com/] • The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell] • Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people | Anton Osika (CEO and co-founder): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika] • Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months—one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder and CEO of StackBlitz): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons] • Behind the product: Replit | Amjad Masad (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-product-replit-amjad-masad [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-product-replit-amjad-masad] • Everyone’s an engineer now: Inside v0’s mission to create a hundred million builders | Guillermo Rauch (founder and CEO of Vercel, creators of v0 and Next.js): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyones-an-engineer-now-guillermo-rauch [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyones-an-engineer-now-guillermo-rauch] • Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com [https://www.snowflake.com] • Yoav Orlev on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoav-orlev-4a044b72 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoav-orlev-4a044b72] • WhatsApp: https://www.whatsapp.com/ [https://www.whatsapp.com/] • Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/ [https://www.amazon.com/] • Google: https://about.google/ [https://about.google/] • MongoDB: https://www.mongodb.com/ [https://www.mongodb.com/] • Deloitte: https://www.deloitte.com/ [https://www.deloitte.com/] • Render: Render.com [http://render.com] • Claude 4: https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-4 [https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-4] • Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/app [https://gemini.google.com/app] • Cloudflare: https://www.cloudflare.com/ [https://www.cloudflare.com/] — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/ [https://penname.co/]. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com [podcast@lennyrachitsky.com]. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=show-notes-no-free-preview-language]

Andrew Wilkinson is the co‑founder of Tiny, a holding company that quietly owns more than three dozen profitable internet and consumer brands, including Dribbble and the AeroPress coffee maker. Starting as a teenage barista and web designer, he’s created a portfolio approaching $300 million in yearly sales (and he was personally worth over $1 billion at one point)—all without ever raising venture capital. In this conversation, you’ll learn: 1. The “fish where the fish are” framework for spotting high‑margin niches no one else notices 2. The exact agent stack (Lindy, Replit, Limitless, and more) that supercharges Andrew’s day-to-day productivity (and has replaced his assistant) 3. How Andrew evaluates companies in less than 15 minutes using Buffett‑style moats and “lazy leadership” 4. Telltale signs you should shut down (or never start) that startup idea 5. His journey from crippling anxiety to clarity through SSRIs and ADHD medication 6. His prediction that most knowledge work will be automated—and the skills to teach your kids now — Brought to you by: Sauce [http://sauce.app/lenny]—Turn customer pain into product revenue Enterpret [https://enterpret.com/lenny]—Transform customer feedback into product growth Miro [https://miro.com/lenny]—A collaborative visual platform where your best work comes to life — Where to find Andrew Wilkinson: • X: https://x.com/awilkinson [https://x.com/awilkinson] • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/awilkinson/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/awilkinson/] — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com] • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan [https://twitter.com/lennysan] • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/] — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to Andrew Wilkinson (04:07) Finding the right business idea (07:18) Avoiding common business pitfalls (11:58) Finding your unfair advantage (17:08) Fish where the fish are (20:08) Why boring is good (25:30) Bootstrapping vs. venture capital (31:20) Lessons from acquiring and managing businesses (36:47) Avoiding people problems (42:39) Leveraging AI in business and life (49:30) The Limitless device (53:13) Job displacement and AI’s future impact (58:20) Advice for new grads (01:02:50) Parenting in the age of AI (01:05:26) The pursuit of happiness beyond wealth (01:10:10) Mental health and medication (01:16:45) Lightning round and final thoughts — Referenced: • Andrew’s post on X with the Charlie Munger quote: https://x.com/awilkinson/status/1265653805443506182 [https://x.com/awilkinson/status/1265653805443506182] • Metalab: https://www.metalab.com/ [https://www.metalab.com/] • Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/ [https://letterboxd.com/] • AeroPress: https://aeropress.com/ [https://aeropress.com/] • Brian Armstrong on X: https://x.com/brian_armstrong [https://x.com/brian_armstrong] • Warren Buffett’s quote: https://quotefancy.com/quote/931119/Warren-Buffett-I-am-a-better-investor-because-I-am-a-businessman-and-a-better-businessman [https://quotefancy.com/quote/931119/Warren-Buffett-I-am-a-better-investor-because-I-am-a-businessman-and-a-better-businessman] • Flow: https://www.getflow.com/ [https://www.getflow.com/] • Instacart: https://www.instacart.com/ [https://www.instacart.com/] • Things: https://culturedcode.com/things/ [https://culturedcode.com/things/] • Dustin Moskovitz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmoskov/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmoskov/] • Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/ [https://www.salesforce.com/] • Serato: https://serato.com/ [https://serato.com/] • Chris Sparling on X: https://x.com/_sparling_ [https://x.com/_sparling_] • Lindy: https://www.lindy.ai/ [https://www.lindy.ai/] • Replit: https://replit.com/ [https://replit.com/] • Behind the product: Replit | Amjad Masad (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-product-replit-amjad-masad [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-product-replit-amjad-masad] • David Ogilvy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ogilvy_(businessman) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ogilvy_(businessman)] • Malcolm Gladwell’s website: https://www.gladwellbooks.com/ [https://www.gladwellbooks.com/] • Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months—one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder and CEO of StackBlitz): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons] • Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people | Anton Osika (CEO and co-founder): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika] • Limitless: https://www.limitless.ai/ [https://www.limitless.ai/] • Perplexity: https://www.perplexity.ai/ [https://www.perplexity.ai/] • Claude: https://claude.ai/ [https://claude.ai/] • ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/ [https://chatgpt.com/] • Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/app [https://gemini.google.com/app] • William Gibson’s quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/681-the-future-is-already-here-it-s-just-not-evenly [https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/681-the-future-is-already-here-it-s-just-not-evenly] • Palm Treo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Treo [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Treo] • Sam Altman on X: https://x.com/sama [https://x.com/sama] • Dario Amodei on X: https://x.com/darioamodei [https://x.com/darioamodei] • Anthropic’s CPO on what comes next | Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-cpo-heres-what-comes-next [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-cpo-heres-what-comes-next] • Challengers on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/challengers/umc.cmc.53cuz33n4e74ixj8whccj87oc [https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/challengers/umc.cmc.53cuz33n4e74ixj8whccj87oc] • Matic vacuum: https://maticrobots.com/ [https://maticrobots.com/] • Jerzy Gregorek’s quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8652595-hard-choices-easy-life-easy-choices-hard-life [https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8652595-hard-choices-easy-life-easy-choices-hard-life] • Tiny: https://www.tiny.com/ [https://www.tiny.com/] • Dribbble: https://dribbble.com/ [https://dribbble.com/] — Recommended books: • The Laws of Human Nature: https://www.amazon.com/Laws-Human-Nature-Robert-Greene/dp/0525428143 [https://www.amazon.com/Laws-Human-Nature-Robert-Greene/dp/0525428143] • How to Get Rich: One of the World’s Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets: https://www.amazon.com/How-Get-Rich-Greatest-Entrepreneurs/dp/1591842719 [https://www.amazon.com/How-Get-Rich-Greatest-Entrepreneurs/dp/1591842719] — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/ [https://penname.co/]. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com [podcast@lennyrachitsky.com]. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

David Placek is the founder of Lexicon Branding, a company that focuses exclusively on the development of brand names for competitive advantage. Lexicon is behind iconic names such as Sonos, Microsoft’s Azure, Windsurf, Vercel, Impossible Foods, BlackBerry, Intel’s Pentium, Apple’s PowerBook, and Swiffer. Over 40 years, David’s team has named nearly 4,000 brands and companies, employing over 250 linguists and pioneering naming innovation. What you’ll learn: 1. The three-step process that generated names like Windsurf and Vercel 2. How a name can give you the edge that no marketing budget can buy 3. Why you won’t “know it when you see it” 4. Why Microsoft called Azure “a dumb name” before it became their billion-dollar cloud platform 5. Why polarizing opinions are the strongest signal that you’ve found the right name 6. How every letter of the alphabet creates a specific psychological vibration 7. The diamond framework: a 4-step process any founder can use to find their perfect name 8. Why domain names don’t matter anymore in the age of AI — Brought to you by: WorkOS [https://workos.com/lenny]—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs Stripe [https://stripe.com/]—Helping companies of all sizes grow revenue OneSchema [https://oneschema.co/lenny]—Import CSV data 10x faster — Where to find David Placek: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-placek-05a82/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-placek-05a82/] • Website: https://www.lexiconbranding.com [https://www.lexiconbranding.com] — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com] • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan [https://twitter.com/lennysan] • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/] — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to David and Lexicon Branding (04:44) The story of Sonos (09:27) The psychology of naming (11:33) The initial resistance to Microsoft's Azure (14:35) The importance of a great brand name (18:11) The three steps of naming: create, invent, implement (28:23) Qualities of great brand name creators (31:24) How long the naming process takes (32:12) The Windsurf case study (36:10) Naming in the AI era (39:37) When to change your name (43:10) The role of linguists (45:54) The power of letters in branding (48:15) The Vercel case study (50:12) The implementation phase (52:52) Client management and market success (55:16) The diamond exercise (01:04:23) Suspending judgment (01:07:31) Polarization and boldness (01:11:01) Domain names (01:12:48) Final thoughts and lightning round — Referenced: • PowerBook: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook] • Pentium: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium] • BlackBerry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry] • Swiffer: https://www.swiffer.com/ [https://www.swiffer.com/] • Impossible Burger: https://impossiblefoods.com/ [https://impossiblefoods.com/] • Vercel: https://vercel.com/ [https://vercel.com/] • Windsurf: https://windsurf.com/ [https://windsurf.com/] • CapCut: https://www.capcut.com/ [https://www.capcut.com/] • Azure: https://azure.microsoft.com/ [https://azure.microsoft.com/] • Sonos: https://www.sonos.com/ [https://www.sonos.com/] • John MacFarlane on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-macfarlane-08a8aa20/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-macfarlane-08a8aa20/] • Harry Potter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_(film_series) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter_(film_series)] • The Call of the Wild: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Call_of_the_Wild [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Call_of_the_Wild] • Everyone’s an engineer now: Inside v0’s mission to create a hundred million builders | Guillermo Rauch (founder and CEO of Vercel, creators of v0 and Next.js [http://next.js]): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyones-an-engineer-now-guillermo-rauch [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/everyones-an-engineer-now-guillermo-rauch] • Sound symbolism: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_symbolism [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_symbolism] • Anduril: https://www.anduril.com/ [https://www.anduril.com/] • Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/ [https://www.anthropic.com/] • Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months—one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder and CEO of StackBlitz): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons] • The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell] • Building a magical AI code editor used by over 1 million developers in four months: The untold story of Windsurf | Varun Mohan (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-untold-story-of-windsurf-varun-mohan [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-untold-story-of-windsurf-varun-mohan] • Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/ [https://www.ycombinator.com/] • Chevrolet Corvette: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette] • Viagra: https://www.viagra.com/ [https://www.viagra.com/] • In vino veritas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vino_veritas [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vino_veritas] • Infoseek: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infoseek [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infoseek] • Andy Grove: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Grove] • Churchill at War on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81609374 [https://www.netflix.com/title/81609374] • Yellowstone on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Yellowstone-Season-1/dp/B07D7FBB8Z [https://www.amazon.com/Yellowstone-Season-1/dp/B07D7FBB8Z] • 1883 on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/1883-Season-1/dp/B0B8JTS8QW [https://www.amazon.com/1883-Season-1/dp/B0B8JTS8QW] • 1923 on Paramount+: https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/1923/ [https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/1923/] • Taylor Sheridan on X: https://x.com/taylorSheridan [https://x.com/tayIorSheridan] • Hardy fly rods: https://www.hardyfishing.com/collections/fly-rods [https://www.hardyfishing.com/collections/fly-rods] • T.E. Lawrence quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/11340-all-men-dream-but-not-equally-those-who-dream-by [https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/11340-all-men-dream-but-not-equally-those-who-dream-by] • Lawrence of Arabia: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/ [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/] • DreamWorks: https://www.dreamworks.com/ [https://www.dreamworks.com/] — Recommended books: • Thucydides’ Melian Dialogue: Commentary, Text, and Vocabulary: https://www.amazon.com/Thucydides-Melian-Dialogue-Commentary-Vocabulary/dp/0692772367 [https://www.amazon.com/Thucydides-Melian-Dialogue-Commentary-Vocabulary/dp/0692772367] • Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life: https://www.amazon.com/Resilience-Hard-Won-Wisdom-Living-Better/dp/054432398X/ [https://www.amazon.com/Resilience-Hard-Won-Wisdom-Living-Better/dp/054432398X/] • Churchill: Walking with Destiny: https://www.amazon.com/Churchill-Walking-Destiny-Andrew-Roberts/dp/1101980990 [https://www.amazon.com/Churchill-Walking-Destiny-Andrew-Roberts/dp/1101980990] — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/ [https://penname.co/]. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com [podcast@lennyrachitsky.com]. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

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 hiring superstars 2. Why your product (probably) doesn’t matter 3. Why you don’t need a tech breakthrough to build a huge business 4. The five PM archetypes, and how to build a team of Avengers 5. Counterintuitive lessons on growing products from 0 to 1, and 1 to 100 6. The importance of data flywheels and workflows — Brought to you by: Paragon [https://www.useparagon.com/lenny]—Ship every SaaS integration your customers want Pragmatic Institute [https://pragmaticinstitute.com/lenny]—Industry‑recognized product, marketing, and AI training and certifications Contentsquare [https://contentsquare.com/lenny/]—Create better digital experiences — Where to find Peter Deng: • X: https://x.com/pxd [https://x.com/pxd] • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterxdeng/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterxdeng/] — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to Peter Deng (05:41) AI and AGI insights (11:35) The future of education with AI (16:53) The power of language in leadership (21:01) Building iconic products (36:44) Scaling from zero to 100 (41:56) Balancing short- and long-term goals (47:12) Creating a healthy tension in teams (50:02) The five archetypes of product managers (55:39) Primary and secondary archetypes (58:47) Hiring for growth mindset and autonomy (01:15:52) Effective management and communication strategies (01:19:23) Presentation advice and self-advocacy (01:25:50) Balancing craft and practicality in product management (01:30:40) The importance of empathy in design thinking (01:35:45) Career decisions and learning opportunities (01:42:05) Lessons from product failures (01:45:42) Lightning round and final thoughts — Referenced: • OpenAI: https://openai.com/ [https://openai.com/] • Artificial general intelligence (AGI): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligence [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_general_intelligence] • Head of ChatGPT answers philosophical questions about AI at SXSW 2024 with SignalFire’s Josh Constine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgbgI0R6XCw [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgbgI0R6XCw] • Professors Are Using A.I., Too. Now What?: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/21/1252663599/kashmir-hill-ai#:~:text=Now%20What [https://www.npr.org/2025/05/21/1252663599/kashmir-hill-ai#:~:text=Now%20What] • Herbert H. Clark: https://web.stanford.edu/~clark/ [https://web.stanford.edu/~clark/] • Russian speakers get the blues: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11759-russian-speakers-get-the-blues/ [https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11759-russian-speakers-get-the-blues/] • Ilya Sutskever (OpenAI Chief Scientist)—Building AGI, Alignment, Future Models, Spies, Microsoft, Taiwan, & Enlightenment: https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/ilya-sutskever [https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/ilya-sutskever] • Anthropic’s CPO on what comes next | Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-cpo-heres-what-comes-next [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropics-cpo-heres-what-comes-next] • Kevin Systrom on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinsystrom/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinsystrom/] • Building a magical AI code editor used by over 1 million developers in four months: The untold story of Windsurf | Varun Mohan (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-untold-story-of-windsurf-varun-mohan [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-untold-story-of-windsurf-varun-mohan] • Microsoft CPO: If you aren’t prototyping with AI, you’re doing it wrong | Aparna Chennapragada: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/microsoft-cpo-on-ai [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/microsoft-cpo-on-ai] • The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell] • Building Lovable: $10M ARR in 60 days with 15 people | Anton Osika (CEO and co-founder): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-lovable-anton-osika] • Granola: https://www.granola.ai/ [https://www.granola.ai/] • Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months—one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder and CEO of StackBlitz): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-bolt-eric-simons] • OpenAI’s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai] • Fidji Simo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fidjisimo/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/fidjisimo/] • Airtable: https://www.airtable.com/ [https://www.airtable.com/] • George Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geolee/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/geolee/] • Andrew Chen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewchen/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewchen/] • Lauryn Motamedi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurynmotamedi/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurynmotamedi/] • Twilio: https://www.twilio.com/ [https://www.twilio.com/] • Nick Turley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasturley/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholasturley/] • Ian Silber on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iansilber/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/iansilber/] • Thomas Dimson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasdimson/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasdimson/] • Joey Flynn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joey-flynn-8291586b/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/joey-flynn-8291586b/] • Ryan O’Rourke’s website: https://www.rourkery.com/ [https://www.rourkery.com/] • Joanne Jang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jangjoanne/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jangjoanne/] • Behind the founder: Marc Benioff: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-founder-marc-benioff [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/behind-the-founder-marc-benioff] • Jill Hazelbaker on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-hazelbaker-3aa32422/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jill-hazelbaker-3aa32422/] • Guy Kawasaki’s website: https://guykawasaki.com/ [https://guykawasaki.com/] • Eric Antonow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonow/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonow/] • Sachin Kansal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sachinkansal/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sachinkansal/] • IDEO design thinking: https://designthinking.ideo.com/ [https://designthinking.ideo.com/] • The 7 Steps of the Design Thinking Process: https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/design-thinking-process [https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/design-thinking-process] • Linear’s secret to building beloved B2B products | Nan Yu (Head of Product): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/linears-secret-to-building-beloved-b2b-products-nan-yu [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/linears-secret-to-building-beloved-b2b-products-nan-yu] • Jeff Bezos’s quote: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27778175 [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27778175] • Friendster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendster [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendster] • Myspace: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace] • How LinkedIn became interesting: The inside story | Tomer Cohen (CPO at LinkedIn): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-linkedin-became-interesting-tomer-cohen [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-linkedin-became-interesting-tomer-cohen] • “Smile” by Jay-Z: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSumXG5_rs8&list=RDSSumXG5_rs8&start_radio=1 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSumXG5_rs8&list=RDSSumXG5_rs8&start_radio=1] • The Wire on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-wire [https://www.hbo.com/the-wire] • Felicis: https://www.felicis.com/ [https://www.felicis.com/] — Recommended books: • Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind: https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/0062316095 [https://www.amazon.com/Sapiens-Humankind-Yuval-Noah-Harari/dp/0062316095] • The Design of Everyday Things: https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expanded/dp/0465050654 [https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expanded/dp/0465050654] • The Silk Roads: A New History of the World: https://www.amazon.com/Silk-Roads-New-History-World/dp/1101912375 [https://www.amazon.com/Silk-Roads-New-History-World/dp/1101912375] — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/ [https://penname.co/]. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com [podcast@lennyrachitsky.com]. — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe [https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]