Ganesh Srinivasan speaks with Ekanth Sethuramalingam, a software engineer and technical leader at Notion, about the challenges of building large scale systems while experiencing massive growth. Previously a software engineer at Uber, where he helped solve some of their biggest challenges in the data space, Ekanth also shares what drew him to join Notion and his thoughts on building new primitives.

[00:01:18] Ekanth’s engineering background

[00:02:14] Switching from Uber to Notion

[00:03:39] Notion’s biggest challenge

[00:08:45] Applying generative AI

[00:12:04] Dream tool

[00:14:32] Rapid fire questions

Full transcript: https://vnrk.co/3qAAhV2

Follow Ethan: https://twitter.com/ethanjb 

Follow Ganesh: https://twitter.com/gan3sh

Andrew Ettinger, ex-CRO at Astronomer, speaks with Ethan Batraski and gives a go-to-market masterclass for technical founders. Drawing from a well of experience that includes running sales at Pivotal and taking the business from 0 to $500M in annual recurring revenue (ARR), Andrew discusses when to hire your first account executive (AE), the most important metrics to focus on in early selling, what good sales conversion looks like in the early stages, and more. 

[00:01:21] Intro to Andrew

[00:03:43] Rapid fire questions

[00:06:04] When commercial open source CEOs should hire their first AE

[00:08:50] What sales metrics to pay attention to

[00:11:37] Defining the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

[00:15:50] Product–led growth or sales led?

[00:19:56] What’s happening with open source?

Full transcript: https://vnrk.co/3MAmu8c 

Follow Ethan: https://twitter.com/ethanjb 

Follow Ganesh: https://twitter.com/gan3sh

Mike Boyarski, chief marketing officer at DeepL, chats with Venrock partner Ethan Batraski about the role marketing plays at an early stage company. A marketing veteran with more than 20 years of experience at companies such as Fivetran and SingleStore, Boyarski shares best practices for building a marketing foundation, engaging your community, and when early stage startups should hire their first marketer. 

[00:02:06] Rapid fire questions

[00:05:12] The role of marketing in an engineering-dominated company

[00:06:39] How to handle marketing before your first marketing hire

[00:09:23] Engaging developers in the marketing process

[00:17:05] When should a company hire its first marketer? 

[00:23:05] Metrics for marketing teams to consider

Full transcript: https://bit.ly/41QtR0R 

Follow Ethan: https://twitter.com/ethanjb 

Follow Ganesh: https://twitter.com/gan3sh