OpenAI's First Marketer Reveals Her "Anti-Playbook"
Top Insights
OpenAI and Stripe’s First Marketer Reveals Her "Anti-Playbook"
Ever wonder how ChatGPT got so big? Krithika Shankarraman, the first marketing hire at both OpenAI and Stripe, says the secret is to ignore the playbooks. She argues that what worked for one company won't work for yours. Instead, she offers a simple framework for finding your own path to growth.
Here are her key takeaways:
- Diagnose the real problem. Don't hire a demand gen leader if your product isn't converting customers yet.
- Analyze your competitors. Study what they're doing so you can find gaps and opportunities.
- Take a different path. At Retool, instead of copying competitors' content marketing, she focused on customer stories—something no one else could replicate.
- Avoid "bullshit numbers." Clicks and impressions are vanity metrics. Focus on what actually drives revenue and signups.
- Experiment constantly. Test your ideas, see what works, and have the courage to throw away what doesn't.
How to Win at the New AI-Powered Search - Q&A With Microsoft's Nicole Schumacher
The age of keyword search is ending, says Microsoft's Nicole Schumacher. Now, it's all about conversations. This is great news for advertisers, as ads in AI chat are getting 2x the clicks and a 53% sales lift. Schumacher lays out a new blueprint for marketers to adapt and win:
- Go beyond keywords: Focus on answering complex, conversational questions.
- Visuals are vital: Use multimedia ads to stand out.
- Use Performance Max: It's the best way to get your ads in Copilot.
- Trust is everything: Make sure your content is accurate and reliable.
- Embrace new ads: Look for formats like "Showroom ads" built for chat.
Is Your Landing Page Missing One of These 5 Essential 'Copy Blocks'?
- it might be costing you a fortune!
Two $100+ million copywriters discovered what REALLY drives conversions—5 simple building blocks arranged in a specific order. This framework is so powerful that beginners are generating 5-figure profits with it. And you can learn the full system in just 33 minutes.
Discover All 5 'Copy Blocks' Now
Prompt of the Week
This Week's Feature: Ontological Distillation
Most explanations are bloated with jargon and unnecessary complexity. They obscure rather than illuminate, leaving your audience more confused than when they started.
The Ontological Distillation prompt cuts through the noise to extract the irreducible essence of any concept, system, or framework. It systematically breaks down complex ideas into their fundamental building blocks. These are the atoms of understanding that actually matter. Use this prompt to transform impenetrable walls of text into crystal-clear mental models that stick.
Here's a sneak peek:
We want to understand a concept, term or idea all the way down to its deepest organizing principle - something that is simultaneously spiritual (the deepest organizing principle, not necessarily religious), poetic, scientific and essential.
What does it mean across different fundamental disciplines and lenses:
For first-principles analysis, I'd organize the key disciplines into foundational layers:
Core Foundations
Mathematics/Logic - Pure structure and necessity
Physics - Laws of matter/energy/spacetime (includes quantum mechanics and relativity as subdisciplines)
Thermodynamics - Arrow of time, entropy, irreversibility (cannot be derived from reversible physics)
Information Theory - Information as fundamental quantity distinct from energy/matter
Topology - Continuity, boundaries, invariance under transformation Emergence & Complexity Chemistry - Emergence rules; how simple gives rise to complex
Tool to Try
Sourceful is an AI packaging design platform that makes creating custom packaging fast and easy. It combines AI design tools with real human designers. First, you tell the AI about your product and brand. Then it creates tons of packaging ideas in seconds.
When you pick a design you like, professional designers turn it into files ready for printing. The whole process takes days instead of months. Sourceful also connects you directly with manufacturers who can print and deliver your packaging.
AI Tool Highlights:
🎨 AI-Powered Design Generation: Chat with your personal AI packaging designer to explore unlimited creative directions in seconds, tailored to your brand's unique style and requirements.
🎯 Human Designer Refinement: Professional designers convert your chosen AI concept into print-ready dielines with proper color accuracy, regulatory compliance, and technical specifications.
🚀 Spring Inspiration Tool: Access their free AI tool to instantly generate packaging ideas and overcome creative blocks without any design expertise needed.
📐 Live Design Editor: Make real-time edits to your packaging without expensive software like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator using their AI-powered editing tools.
🌱 Sustainable Manufacturing Network: Connect directly with vetted manufacturers while measuring carbon footprint in real-time and offsetting emissions with one click.
🏭 End-to-End Platform: Handle the entire packaging process from ideation to delivery in one place, including compliance verification, production files, and supplier coordination.
One More Need-to-Know News Story
Is AI Really Taking Your Job? New Data Says Not Yet
Despite fears of a robot takeover, AI isn't causing mass layoffs. Out of nearly 287,000 job cuts this year, only 75 were explicitly tied to AI. The real impact is more subtle.
Companies like Shopify and Duolingo are freezing hiring and telling teams to use AI before asking for more staff. They are shifting money from salaries to AI software. Even at Microsoft, recent layoffs are partly to offset the huge cost of building AI data centers. Experts say jobs are changing, but there's no evidence AI is fully replacing workers yet.
Mind Fodder
Thanks for reading.
Until next time!
The AI Marketers
P.S. Help shape the future of this newsletter – take a short 2-minute survey so we can deliver even better AI marketing insights, prompts, and tools.
[Take Survey Here]
