Growth tactics from OpenAI and Stripe’s first marketer | Krithika Shankarraman

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, Lenny Rachitsky interviews Krithika Shankarraman, an early marketing leader at OpenAI, Stripe, Retool, Dropbox, and Google, and currently an executive in residence at Thrive Capital. Krithika shares her experiences and lessons learned in marketing, emphasizing the importance of understanding the customer and product deeply, rather than blindly following playbooks. She introduces the DATE framework (Diagnose, Analyze, Take a different path, Experiment) as a guide to marketing strategy and discusses examples from her time at Stripe and Retool. The conversation also covers the value of internal reviews, maintaining brand consistency, and career advice for marketing professionals, including the concept of the "chameleon CMO" and the role of AI in marketing.