Krithika Shankarraman

Guest: Krithika Shankarraman - Executive in Residence at Thrive Capital. Krithika was the first marketing hire and VP of Marketing at OpenAI and Stripe, and has held marketing leadership roles at Retool, Dropbox, and Google. Key Takeaways: Understand Your Customer: Spend time diagnosing the specific problem you want to solve rather than copying other companies' playbooks. Differentiate from Competitors: Analyze competitors to find inspiration and gaps, then intentionally take a different path to stand out. Experiment and Validate: Test different strategies on a small scale to see what works before scaling up. Internal Alignment: Implement processes like 20% and 80% reviews to ensure marketing consistency and alignment across teams. Adaptability in Marketing: Modern marketers should be flexible and adaptable, capable of working across various marketing disciplines. Topics Covered: Marketing at OpenAI and Stripe, Differentiation strategies, Importance of internal reviews, Role of brand consistency, Career advice for marketers, Pricing strategies for AI products, Use of AI in marketing.