Anneka Gupta: How to be strategic and lead in founder mode

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

October 17, 2024

Duration

1h 8m

Channel

Lenny's Podcast

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Anneka Gupta is the Chief Product Officer at Rubrik, a leading B2B cybersecurity company. She previously spent 11 years at LiveRamp, where she was the President and Head of Product and Platforms leading product development and go-to-market operations and strategy. Anneka also sits on the board of directors for Tinuiti and teaches product management at Stanford University. In our conversation, we discuss:

• Navigating “founder mode” dynamics in organizations
• Navigating difficult personalities and aligning teams
• The PM skill of summarization
• Giving and receiving hard feedback effectively
• The value of a positive mindset
• Tips for breaking into product management
• Much more

— Brought to you by:

• The Enterprise Ready Conference — For B2B leaders building enterprise SaaS: https://www.enterprise-ready.com/
• Command AI — AI-powered user assistance for modern products and impatient users: https://www.command.ai/lenny
• Eppo — Run reliable, impactful experiments: https://www.geteppo.com/

Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/becoming-more-strategic-anneka-gupta Where to find Anneka Gupta:

• X: https://x.com/annekagupta
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annekagupta

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to Anneka Gupta (01:43) Key mindsets for success (05:30) Managing energy for optimal performance (09:05) Founder mode (18:26) Becoming more strategic (27:54) The importance of decision-making (37:18) Navigating difficult personalities (41:38) Techniques for giving and receiving feedback (51:01) Transitioning into product management (54:56) Advice for aspiring product managers (59:39) Leveraging AI tools in product management (01:01:27) The power of a positive mindset (01:04:30) Lightning round Referenced:

• Founder Mode: https://paulgraham.com/foundermode.html
• Building a long and meaningful career | Nikhyl Singhal (Meta, Google): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-a-long-and-meaningful-career
• The Skip community: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skip-community/
• Rubrik: https://www.rubrik.com/
• 5 essential questions to craft a winning strategy | Roger Martin (author, advisor, speaker): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-strategy-roger-martin
• Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works: https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Win-Strategy-Really-Works/dp/142218739X
• Thinking like a gardener not a builder, organizing teams like slime mold, the adjacent possible, and other unconventional product advice | Alex Komoroske: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/unconventional-product-advice-alex-komoroske
• Acquired podcast interviews Zuckerberg in San Francisco: https://transistor.fm/acquired-live/
• Hema Mohan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hemamohan/
• Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity: https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Candor-Kick-Ass-Without-Humanity/dp/1250103509
• Radical Candor: From theory to practice with author Kim Scott: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/radical-candor-from-theory-to-practice
• LiveRamp: https://liveramp.com/
• Product Management class at Stanford: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/experience/learning/experiential-learning/action-learning-program/product-management
• Figma: https://www.figma.com/
• Dovetail: https://try.dovetail.com/
• The Remarkable Advantage of Abundant Thinking: https://review.firstround.com/the-remarkable-advantage-of-abundant-thinking/
• The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers: https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Thing-About-Things-Building/dp/0062273205
• Brandon Sanderson’s books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Brandon-Sanderson/author/B001IGFHW6
• Fallout on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CN4HV16N
• Thunderbolt 4 ( 3-meter cable): https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MW5H3AM/A/thunderbolt-4-usb%E2%80%91c-pro-cable-3-m
• Isaac Asimov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov
• The complete Foundation series: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Asimovs-Foundation-Foundations-Prelude/dp/B01EFDEMS8

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Anneka Gupta

  guest

• Lenny Rachitsky

  host

• Narrator

  other

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Lenny's Podcast, featuring Anneka Gupta and Lenny Rachitsky, Anneka Gupta: How to be strategic and lead in founder mode explores anneka Gupta on strategy, founders, hard feedback, and joyful leadership Anneka Gupta, CPO at Rubrik and longtime product leader, shares her approach to making work fun, managing energy, and handling difficult situations and personalities. She reframes “being strategic” as combining a compelling, simple ‘why’ with championing hard, high‑leverage changes, and offers very tactical ways PMs can build this muscle (especially through summarization and incremental “one click better” thinking).

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