Next Gen Builders

Amplitude
  • 5,0 (25)
  • БИЗНЕС
  • КАЖДЫЕ ДВЕ НЕДЕЛИ

Welcome to Next Gen Builders, a behind-the-scenes look with the industry’s most influential leaders building great digital experiences. Veteran product executive Francois Ajenstat explores how teams connect grand visions to the grit of execution. In his conversations, hear from the most inspiring and prominent product pioneers on the paths they’ve navigated, and lessons they’ve learned on their way to the top. Get inspired to think outside the box, break the rules, and build the next generation of cutting-edge digital products. This is Next Gen Builders—Presented by Amplitude.

  1. Tech Shift Survival Guide with Aparna Sinha, SVP of Product at Vercel

    30 СЕНТ.

    Tech Shift Survival Guide with Aparna Sinha, SVP of Product at Vercel

    How do you build products in the middle of an AI tornado, stay ahead of rapidly evolving technologies, and lead teams through uncertainty? Aparna Sinha, SVP of Product at Vercel, shares her playbook for navigating the future of product development in the AI era. Host Francois Ajenstat kicks off the conversation by exploring how Aparna’s unconventional journey has shaped the leadership approach she brings to her daily work at Vercel. Aparna also reflects on the early days of Kubernetes, her time at McKinsey, and what it means to go from building for users to building with users.  You’ll hear how Vercel is redefining developer experience with frameworks like Next.js and tools like v0, and why product agility, not long-term roadmaps, is now the cornerstone of innovation. Francois and Aparna also cover future challenges and opportunities enterprises are facing as a result of unfaltering AI usage.  Whether you’re shipping code in the AI era or leading platform strategy at scale, this episode delivers hard-won lessons on product velocity, strategic clarity, and building what’s next. — Guest Bio Aparna Sinha is Senior Vice President of Product at Vercel, where she leads product strategy across performance, developer experience, and AI-driven tooling. With over a decade of experience building developer platforms, she is known for bridging cutting-edge infrastructure with intuitive product design. Previously, Aparna spent nearly ten years at Google, leading teams behind Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and developer tools for Google Cloud. She holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and advises startups through Pear VC, with a focus on AI/ML, cloud, and dev tools. — Guest Quote “My passion is technology, and that often starts with understanding what the fundamental breakthrough is. Once I understand that, it becomes a lot easier to talk to a customer about what it could mean for them. That requires sitting in their shoes, really knowing their environment, their goals, and the pressures they face. Then you marry that technical insight to user need, and that’s where the real value gets created.” – Aparna Sinha — Time Stamps   00:00 Episode Start 01:50 Aparna's unconventional career path 06:20 Applying lessons from the cloud revolution to today's world 11:45 Finding your passion 16:20 Vercel's journey from Next.js to V0 19:10 Staying in touch with what is now 20:45 Roadmaps are no longer written in pen 23:00 Leapfrogging of models 28:00 Aparna's "Oh Sh*t Moment" 34:00 Advice for building in the AI era — Links Connect with Aparna Sinha on LinkedInCheck out VercelConnect with Francois Ajenstat on LinkedInCheck out Amplitude Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    35 мин.
  2. When AI Meets Legal feat. Eleanor Lightbody, CEO of Luminance

    9 СЕНТ.

    When AI Meets Legal feat. Eleanor Lightbody, CEO of Luminance

    Is it possible to build and scale AI tooling for one of the world’s most risk-averse industries while instilling trust in your users? Today on Next Gen Builders, Francois Ajenstat explores just how to do it with Eleanor Lightbody, CEO of Luminance, the pioneer in Legal-Grade™ AI for enterprise. With 700+ customers in 70+ countries, Eleanor shares how Luminance evolved from early machine learning back in 2015 to where it is today, employing sophisticated AI agents that automate contract review, negotiation, and compliance workflows. Throughout their conversation, Francois and Eleanor highlight different strategies for building user trust. Some are complex: using multiple models at once to check one another’s work and reduce hallucinations. Some are simple: if your models can’t deliver an answer with confidence, let the human know so they can verify. You’ll also hear Eleanor discuss how her team uses AI across the business, why speed is a competitive advantage, and what it means to lead a global company outside Silicon Valley. Whether you’re building AI in a high-stakes domain or leading transformation in a legacy industry, this episode offers practical insights on trust, innovation, and scaling with purpose. — Guest Bio Eleanor is CEO of Luminance. Formerly a Director at cyber-AI leader Darktrace, she established and scaled Darktrace’s operations in Africa before serving as Global Head of the Darktrace Industrial Division. Eleanor has a wealth of experience in growing technology businesses, having driven Luminance’s global expansion and led the company’s $75 million Series C funding round in 2025. Named in Management Today’s “35 Women Under 35,” Eleanor is also the winner of Law.com’s prestigious ‘Innovation Trailblazer Award.’ She also serves on Luminance’s Board of Directors. — Guest Quote “I always ask: why can’t AI do this first? Then we figure out what the human should do. The speed advantage is massive. Not just for delivery, but for getting the feedback loop faster, and that is gonna set you up for success. Speed has always been important, but in this new era that everyone’s operating in, I would say it’s probably one of the most important things.” – Eleanor Lightbody — Time Stamps   00:00 Episode Start 01:23 What is Luminance? 02:34 Why specialized AI is primed for legal teams 07:20 The largest roadblocks to widespread adoption 09:52 How do you measure success? 11:56 Building confidence across your organization 14:50 Staying ahead of the curve 18:06 Eleanor's journey to Luminance 22:12 Optimize for learning 24:07 Leading globally 26:56 Advice for aspiring CEOs 31:15 Eleanor's "Oh Sh*t Moment" — Links Connect with Eleanor Lightbody on LinkedInCheck out LuminanceConnect with Francois Ajenstat on LinkedInCheck out Amplitude

    34 мин.
  3. Teach Your Team to Thrive with AI feat. Hannah Calhoon from Indeed

    19 АВГ.

    Teach Your Team to Thrive with AI feat. Hannah Calhoon from Indeed

    How do you bring your entire organization along for the AI ride while inspiring confidence and flexibility amid fast evolution? Hannah Calhoon, VP of AI and Head of AI Innovation at Indeed, shares how she’s helping 11,000 employees embrace AI as a partner in their work. Host Francois Ajenstat gets things going through an exploration of how AI is currently transforming Indeed in both its offerings and the way its teams work every day. Hannah explains a focus on balancing rapid experimentation with thoughtful change management, and why building role-specific skills has been key to adoption thus far. You’ll hear how Indeed trains teams across engineering, sales, and marketing to use AI tools effectively, how a “Lego block” approach helps them stay flexible in a fast-moving space, and why human judgment still sits at the center of AI-powered hiring. Hannah also shares lessons on creating safe spaces for experimentation, overcoming resistance to new tools, and leading large-scale change without losing trust. Whether you’re scaling AI in a global enterprise or navigating your first AI initiatives, this episode offers a practical blueprint for transformation at speed. — Guest Bio Hannah is a VP of Product at Indeed, where she leads the AI for Indeed team. Her team focuses on enabling everyone at Indeed to effectively build and use AI tools and preparing the organization for the Future of Work. She also chairs the cross-company AI steering committee, which is tasked with ensuring Indeed is moving quickly and responsibly to deploy AI to drive business outcomes.  Previously, Hannah led Indeed's long-term innovation team and built out Indeed’s GenAI Lab. She has focused her career on building innovation systems that deliver benefits to people's daily lives—initially in pharma and medtech and for the last 10 years in software, with a focus on fintech, legal tech, and HR tech.  Hannah holds degrees from Harvard College and Stanford's Graduate School of Business. She serves as a Venture Partner for Purpose Built Ventures and sits on the board of edtech nonprofit Economic Mobility Systems. — Guest Quote "We sort of think of the world like we're building an architecture with Lego blocks. And so you've got your moderation block, and right now we have one or multiple solutions, either first party or third party, for moderation. But we're building the system so that if two years from now there's a much better way to do moderation, we can effectively pull that block out and stick a different block in. So we are architecturally optimizing for flexibility under the assumption that the choice that’s right today is almost certainly not going to be the choice in three years." – Hannah Calhoon — Time Stamps   00:00 Episode Start 01:25 Hannah's AI role at Indeed  04:45 How to implement AI tooling internally 08:30 Overcoming resistance and gaining trust 11:40 Think of AI strategy like building Lego 13:40 You don't always need the latest and greatest 16:30 Who should be responsible for AI strategy? 18:50 The unintentional impact of AI 21:50 Supercharging humans with AI tools 26:15 Change management in driving AI adoption 29:30 Is the danger of bad actors worth losing sleep over? 35:10 Hannah's "Oh Sh*t Moment" — Links Connect with Hannah Calhoon on LinkedInCheck out IndeedConnect with Francois Ajenstat on LinkedInCheck out Amplitude Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    41 мин.
  4. Beat the Hype—How to Market AI with Diego Lomanto from WRITER

    29 ИЮЛ.

    Beat the Hype—How to Market AI with Diego Lomanto from WRITER

    How do you cut through the AI noise, build trust in uncertain markets, and lead your marketing organization through constant reinvention? Diego Lomanto, CMO at WRITER, shares his blueprint for enterprise storytelling, customer-centered go-to-market, and scaling AI with impact. Host Francois Ajenstat opens up the conversation by asking how Diego’s unique journey has led him to where he is today. Making the jump from automation to AI, Diego shares how his time at UiPath shaped his approach to building with speed and rigor.  You’ll hear how WRITER’s marketing team stays agile in a fast-evolving category, why human-led engagement still wins in an AI-first world, and how to empower customers to evangelize change from within. Diego also shares lessons on hiring for adaptability, partnering deeply with your product teams, and making storytelling a competitive advantage. Whether you’re leading go-to-market for a scaling SaaS company or navigating the enterprise AI wave, this episode delivers practical strategies for marketing leadership in motion. — Guest Bio Diego Lomanto is a B2B product and marketing expert with 20 years of experience in global enterprise software. He is currently the CMO at WRITER, where he has been since 2024.  He is adept at building and leading product and marketing organizations and is a graduate of the NYU Stern School of Business with an MBA and a specialization in strategy and marketing. His specialties include B2B and SaaS, strategy and competitive analysis, product innovation and development, go-to-market strategy, brand vision and positioning, and digital marketing.  He is skilled in demand generation and funnel optimization, product marketing, and sales enablement. He also acts as Startup Advisor/Investor. — Guest Quote “What I love about what AI has done is, it helps people and companies get started and it helps them scale, and that middle part is where the magic happens. You're giving the humans much more time, bandwidth, and opportunity to focus on the magical part of marketing. The creativity, the story you want to tell, the people-oriented parts of the job. And you're able to do that because AI is giving you the tools to generate a lot of ideas. When you're ready to take something to market, scaling it is so much easier and faster than before.” – Diego Lomanto — Time Stamps   00:00 Episode Start 01:50 How WRITER is transforming the world 03:50 Diego's journey from automation to AI 06:30 Marketing AI with human success stories 11:45 A commitment to reinvention 14:35 Culture is critical at fast-pace organizations 19:00 Maintaining core principles amidst product evolution 20:40 How WRITER delivers above and beyond 23:30 Merging best in class technology with a forward looking culture 25:30 Real opportunities for AI in marketing 31:30 Product marketing alignment 35:00 Diego's journey to the CMO seat 38:45 Diego's "Oh Sh*t" Moment — Links Connect with Diego Lomanto on LinkedInCheck out WRITERConnect with Francois Ajenstat on LinkedInCheck out Amplitude Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    44 мин.
  5. Hypergrowth 101 with April Underwood from Adverb Ventures

    8 ИЮЛ.

    Hypergrowth 101 with April Underwood from Adverb Ventures

    How do great product leaders navigate rapid scaling, the AI evolution, and unpredictable founders? April Underwood, former CPO at Slack and Co-Founder of Adverb Ventures, shares her playbook for building enduring product vision through change. Francois and April frame their conversation by first exploring her background with hypergrowth orgs such as Twitter and Slack, unpacking key learnings around what it takes to scale your own skills alongside your company. You’ll hear her thoughts around leading with clarity, building trust with your founders, and navigating technology paradigm shifts such as GenAI. Additionally, April offers sharp insights into how product teams can stay grounded during uncertainty, how design becomes a competitive advantage during inflection points, and what she looks for in early-stage founders as a venture investor. Whether you’re investing in the next unicorn or building it from the ground up, this episode provides grounded frameworks and hard-earned lessons for you to follow. — Guest Bio April Underwood is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Adverb Ventures, with a focus on investing in various sectors and stages such as Future of Work, Consumer Health, and Developer Tools.  She has held significant roles at companies like Slack as Chief Product Officer and Twitter as Director of Product, demonstrating her expertise in product management and strategic partnerships. Underwood's career highlights include co-founding #ANGELS and Nearby, as well as serving on the boards of Zillow Group and Eventbrite, showcasing her strong leadership skills and strategic vision in the tech industry. — Guest Quote “We should all be looking at AI and thinking that if everything we have worked hard to do in the past is now becoming commoditized, then I either need to fire these tools up and get into the mindset of somebody that comes to this with a fresh set of eyes, or I need to be on the side of building tools that are a part of the evolution.” – April Underwood — Time Stamps   00:00 Episode Start 01:45 April's jump from Twitter to Slack 06:15 Decision making within a hypergrowth organization 09:15 Aligning your organization around the North Star 12:20 Creating a winning Founder-CPO relationship 17:40 How April views the AI future 23:00 AI has created two worlds in Silicon Valley 25:15 The "It-Factor" in emerging startups 30:55 Looking back on April's career trajectory 34:00 The importance of community — Links Connect with April Underwood on LinkedInCheck out Adverb VenturesConnect with Francois Ajenstat on LinkedInCheck out Amplitude Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    38 мин.
  6. Shaping Great Product Design with Yudi Sun, Duolingo's Dir of Product Design

    17 ИЮН.

    Shaping Great Product Design with Yudi Sun, Duolingo's Dir of Product Design

    How do top design leaders turn strategic vision into product magic? Yudi Sun of Duolingo joins Francois on this episode of Next Gen Builders to share how design can influence product outcomes, build cross-functional trust, and scale impact. Their conversation takes a look at the design systems, rituals, and philosophies that supercharge one of the world’s most engaging apps. With prior experience at other brand leaders like Lyft and Cash App, Yudi presents a strong case for how design can operate beyond visuals and become a force for product strategy, organizational alignment, and business growth. You’ll learn about Yudi’s "60% brain share" framework for team collaboration, how Duolingo runs product reviews directly with the CEO in 10-minute slots, and what it takes for designers to build influence upstream. Whether you’re leading a growth team or launching new features, this episode offers real insights into making design central to product success. — Guest Bio Yudi Sun is head of design for Duolingo's Growth org, the team that created the Duolingo streak, leaderboards, friendship mechanics, notifications and more. Before this, she led an app-wide redesign at Cash App, created products for drivers at Lyft, and started her career as an illustrator. — Guest Quote “Design is at the forefront of our ability to build products. It really occupies just about the same role as a product lead does. And it's usually part of the perfect trio of engineering, product, and design when it comes to figuring out what are we trying to do, how are we going to get there, and what does good look like.” – Yudi Sun — Time Stamps   00:00 Episode Start 02:20 The role of design inside Duolingo 4:50 Sharing tasks & goals to collaborate effectively  08:25 How to implement this strategy 11:35 Is misalignment inevitable at some point? 15:45 Yudi's definition of craft 18:15 Where Duolingo sits on the design spectrum 21:30 What a more traditional company can take from Duolingo's approach 26:00 Making decisions for all to see 35:50 Yudi's "Oh Sh*t" Moment — Links Connect with Yudi Sun on LinkedInCheck out DuolingoConnect with Francois Ajenstat on LinkedInCheck out Amplitude Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    42 мин.
  7. How to Build AI Fast with Daniel Sternberg, Former Notion Head of Data

    27 МАЯ

    How to Build AI Fast with Daniel Sternberg, Former Notion Head of Data

    What does it really take to build, ship, and scale AI fast? Today on Next Gen Builders, Francois is joined by Daniel Sternberg, former Head of Data at Notion and Gusto, who shares lessons learned from the development of Notion AI and the evolving role of data leadership in AI-first organizations. Daniel offers an inside look at Notion AI’s rapid development, revealing how a CEO-driven push transformed into a revenue-generating product just a month after ChatGPT launched. He highlights the importance of balancing excitement about these new AI tools with a clear understanding of their limitations. Daniel also encourages organizations to adopt AI broadly, not just within specialized teams. Daniel & Francois also explore the evolving role of data leadership in SaaS, emphasizing why data teams need to move beyond being simple service providers. Whether you’re leading AI projects or building data-driven products, Daniel’s insights provide valuable guidance for leaders navigating the fast-changing AI landscape. — Guest Bio Daniel Sternberg is a seasoned data science and AI executive. He currently advises startups as a fractional data and AI executive, helping organizations build high-performing data teams and leverage AI for product and operational excellence. Prior, he served as Head of Data at Notion where he guided the company through a period of rapid user growth and pioneered the launch of advanced AI-powered features.  His leadership was instrumental in scaling Notion’s data infrastructure and integrating generative AI capabilities into the platform, supporting both product innovation and business expansion. His career is marked by a commitment to data-driven decision-making, technical leadership, and the thoughtful integration of AI into everyday tools. — Guest Quote "There's this idea that AI features can be prioritized and shipped like any other product feature, but there's an added dimension: does it actually work? You don't know if it works until you build it. So you should never promise a ship date until you're confident in the quality. The tech has to prove itself first, and only then should you align marketing or product engineering behind it." – Daniel Sternberg — Time Stamps   00:00 Episode Start 02:00 The role of a SaaS data leader  07:40 How the data function will evolve 16:40 Building Notion AI 20:40 Launching with a flood of interest 22:50 Don't quit while you're ahead 24:45 The power of a CEO Founder 27:30 Prioritizing speed and flexibility  31:10 Lessons learned from the Notion AI launch 27:20 Democratizing AI responsibility 40:55 Daniel's "Oh Sh*t Moment" — Links Connect with Daniel Sternberg on LinkedInConnect with Francois Ajenstat on LinkedInCheck out Amplitude Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    48 мин.
  8. Crafting an Iconic Legacy Brand with Telstra's CMO Brent Smart

    6 МАЯ

    Crafting an Iconic Legacy Brand with Telstra's CMO Brent Smart

    Today on Next Gen Builders, Francois welcomes Brent Smart, the CMO at Australian Telco giant, Telstra. Their conversation focuses on the power of brand as Brent has been the leading charge behind Telstra’s new brand platform.  Throughout the episode, Brent argues for connecting your marketing efforts to the real world. When trying to evaluate how Telstra appeared to consumers, his team ran surveys asking Australians to draw, not write, what they thought of the organization. Similarly, he consistently advocates for running live experiments to validate your approaches in real time.  The episode also explores how Brent aligns teams around a unified brand vision with tools created in house, such as “Telstra’s Creative Dial,” to help measure and guide creative output. He stresses the value of a distinct brand voice and explains why starting with a small, focused team helps nurture new ideas. Drawing on his transition from agency life to leading Telstra’s marketing, Brent offers a fresh perspective on keeping creativity alive in a corporate setting. His commitment to hands-on idea generation and real-world testing over pre-market research makes this episode essential for anyone seeking meaningful brand transformation. — Guest Bio A leading global marketer and a passionate speaker on creativity, brand and culture, Brent Smart is Chief Marketing Officer of Australia's second most valuable brand, Telstra. Previously, Brent spent five years as CMO of Australian insurance giant IAG, where his work on NRMA Insurance took it from 36th strongest brand in Australia to 5th, winning 3 Gold effectiveness awards and the coveted Grand Effie in 2021. Mark Ritson wrote that “NRMA is not just a fantastic Australian case study, it could be taught at Harvard or Stanford and positions Brent Smart as the most accomplished CMO in Australia and one of the best in the world”. Before becoming a marketer, Brent spent 20 years in the advertising business, leading New Zealand Agency of the Decade Colenso BBDO and rising to CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi New York, winning many Cannes Lions and other global creative awards. — Guest Quote “ Brand is a multiplier for performance marketing. When the brand is strong, the performance marketing actually works better. We've seen our short term ROIs actually go up, not go down. The brand doesn't just help with this quarter's numbers, it helps with next quarter’s and beyond. And once you give it time to start building, you can start showing that not just the brand metrics are healthy, also our short term performance metrics are healthy. But you need time. It's not gonna show in the first quarter. You gotta wait.” – Brent Smart — Time Stamps   00:00 Episode Start 2:00 The power of brand 05:10 Evaluating your brand 08:35 Finding your brand voice 12:10 Building conviction within your organization 15:05 Start experimenting in the real world 17:40 Leading by doing 19:45 Taxi or Bus Meeting 22:00 What does a good pitch feel like? 27:35  Discipline liberates creativity 30:00 Can you teach taste? 34:20 Brent's journey to CMO — Links Connect with Brent Smart on LinkedInCheck out TelstraConnect with Francois Ajenstat on LinkedInCheck out Amplitude Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

    42 мин.
См. все (21)

Трейлер

5
из 5
Оценок: 25

Об этом подкасте

Welcome to Next Gen Builders, a behind-the-scenes look with the industry’s most influential leaders building great digital experiences. Veteran product executive Francois Ajenstat explores how teams connect grand visions to the grit of execution. In his conversations, hear from the most inspiring and prominent product pioneers on the paths they’ve navigated, and lessons they’ve learned on their way to the top. Get inspired to think outside the box, break the rules, and build the next generation of cutting-edge digital products. This is Next Gen Builders—Presented by Amplitude.

Информация

  • Автор
    Amplitude
  • Годы выхода
    2024 - 2025
  • Выпуски
    21
  • Ограничения
    С ненормативной лексикой
  • Авторские права
    © Amplitude
  • Сайт подкаста
    Next Gen Builders