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Oji Udezue was most recently Chief Product Officer at Typeform, where he led product strategy across the company’s growing suite of tools. Previously, he was CPO at Calendly, where he helped scale one of the most beloved PLG tools in the market. Before that, he was Head of Product for Creation and Conversation at Twitter, leading core features like Tweets, DMs, and Spaces. At Atlassian, he led all communication products, including the launch of Atlassian’s first post-IPO product.
Oji also spent years at Microsoft, building foundational experiences across Windows, Outlook, Hotmail, and Internet Explorer.
In addition to his product leadership, Oji is the founder of Kernel Fund, an early-stage fund supporting startups across Africa. He writes about product, growth, and leadership at his newsletter Product Mind and is the author of the upcoming book Building Rocketships—a guide for high-growth product teams.
Discussed in this Episode:
When to hire your first PM (and what to look for)
Why great product teams include marketing from day one
A framework for picking winning startup ideas
How AI is changing how we build (not just what we build)
What product leaders can learn from Microsoft’s Longhorn failure
Why 3x better isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s a must
If you missed GTM 143, check it out here:Why Most AI Messaging Fails and How to Actually Stand Out in a Crowded Market | Harmony Anderson
Highlights:
04:52 – Why marketing is essential to product leadership
12:02 – How AI is transforming the process of building products
17:07 – Common product mistakes founders make early on
24:16 – Building Rocket Ships: Why Oji wrote the book
31:08 – Framework: Where to fish for unicorns
33:17 – The “3x better” rule for product value
37:07 – The challenge of true product differentiation
39:22 – What Microsoft’s Longhorn failure taught Oji
44:51 – When (and how) to hire your first PM
48:31 – The importance of fast, early customer feedback
54:46 – How AI is changing go-to-market strategy
57:32 – Why marketers must master signal in a noisy world
Guest Speaker Links (Oji Udezue):
Kernel Fund: https://www.kernelfund.com/
Product Mind: https://www.productmind.co/
Building Rocketships (Book): https://a.co/d/0HGjf18
Pro Edition with 60+ downloadable templates and team tools
SubStack:
Host Speaker Links (Sophie Buonassisi):
Newsletter: https://substack.com/@sophiebuonassisi
Where to find GTMnow (GTMfund’s media brand):
Website: gtmnow.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/gtmnow
Twitter/X: x.com/GTMnow_
YouTube: /@gtm_now
The GTM Podcast (on all major directories): /gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/
Sponsors:
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The GTM Podcast
The GTM Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.
Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.
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