High Signal Podcasts Evidence ledger
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Public evidence record

Elena Verna

Published podcast speaker

Claims
60
Episodes
4
Shows
1
Named items
2

Books, apps, and tools

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app / uses

Granola

“And I use Granola a lot, for example, because to me, it's super helpful to get AI summaries of the meetings”

Lenny's Podcast · 18 Dec 2025

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

service / uses

Lovable

“I've never used AI there the way I use AI at Lovable and the things that I'm capable of accomplishing at Lovable, and I don't know if I ever would've made that leap so fast unless I joined Lovable.”

Lenny's Podcast · 18 Dec 2025

Evidence receipt · Source ↗

Claim ledger

What Elena said.

60 transcript-backed records

03 / commitment

I can't comment on specific margin details for us, but at the same time, the money that we're raising on VC is for future development and hardening our business, not because we will not be able to survive without it.

“I can't comment on specific margin details for us, but at the same time, the money that we're raising on VC is for future development and hardening our business, not because we will not be able to survive without it.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

04 / belief

I think the power should be with consumer always, but with software, power has not been with consumer previously because we were forced to use towards some solutions because of either how they were chosen for us or what was available in the market.

“I think the power should be with consumer always, but with software, power has not been with consumer previously because we were forced to use towards some solutions because of either how they were chosen for us or what was available in the market.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

08 / belief

I think community is really important here because you need to bring people together as they're exploring these capabilities and as they're seeing what's possible so they can bounce off each other and they can help each other out.

“I think community is really important here because you need to bring people together as they're exploring these capabilities and as they're seeing what's possible so they can bounce off each other and they can help each other out.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

09 / belief

If not, I think we're going to come up with crazy things of what this LLM and AI will be able to do if it's going to continue at this cusp, but it's a weird place to be in because every three months we have to throttle on our scaling efforts and just reinvent and then scale again.

“If not, I think we're going to come up with crazy things of what this LLM and AI will be able to do if it's going to continue at this cusp, but it's a weird place to be in because every three months we have to throttle on our scaling efforts and just reinvent and then scale again.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

10 / evaluation

This is difficult for larger companies. But when you're smaller and you still have a little bit more narrative control with everybody on your team, plus you have so much more trust within the organization, where people are going to say the right things because they understand what actually has happened, that ability to just really quickly deliver the message to the market becomes really important.

“This is difficult for larger companies. But when you're smaller and you still have a little bit more narrative control with everybody on your team, plus you have so much more trust within the organization, where people are going to say the right things because they understand what actually has happened, that ability to just really quickly deliver the message to the market becomes really important.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

11 / prediction

Especially in B2B, so focused on search. And now I feel like it's been completely pushed even further into consumerization territory, and it has become all about social no matter how B2B you are, because that's where eyeballs are at.

“Especially in B2B, so focused on search. And now I feel like it's been completely pushed even further into consumerization territory, and it has become all about social no matter how B2B you are, because that's where eyeballs are at.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

13 / evaluation

This is one of the once in a lifetime type of companies, and the category, the way that it's evolving. So, I want to make sure that people don't all of a sudden set this as a benchmark for success because it should never be.

“This is one of the once in a lifetime type of companies, and the category, the way that it's evolving. So, I want to make sure that people don't all of a sudden set this as a benchmark for success because it should never be.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

14 / preference

Because otherwise, yeah, I would be in that experience all the time. But I feel a lot more at ease, because everybody's thinking about it and everybody's working on making agents better.

“Because otherwise, yeah, I would be in that experience all the time. But I feel a lot more at ease, because everybody's thinking about it and everybody's working on making agents better.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

15 / commitment

" So I think that just making in the moment, in every day, when sometimes in-the-hour decisions, to me, works better than trying to balance something that is completely unachievable and it feels overwhelming to even think about. But I prioritize this in my sleep, my health, my workout schedule, my kids, my family, my husband, and just my downtime because I know that I'm most creative once I have separation from work, because then I come in with all cylinders firing and I have so many more ideas about it.

“" So I think that just making in the moment, in every day, when sometimes in-the-hour decisions, to me, works better than trying to balance something that is completely unachievable and it feels overwhelming to even think about. But I prioritize this in my sleep, my health, my workout schedule, my kids, my family, my husband, and just my downtime because I know that I'm most creative once I have separation from work, because then I come in with all cylinders firing and I have so many more ideas about it.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

16 / preference

I love this move, because I hate nothing more than going to software that is just so painful to use that I lose some brain cells as I'm interacting with it, versus software that I feel I get energy out of.

“I love this move, because I hate nothing more than going to software that is just so painful to use that I lose some brain cells as I'm interacting with it, versus software that I feel I get energy out of.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

17 / preference

I've never used AI there the way I use AI at Lovable and the things that I'm capable of accomplishing at Lovable, and I don't know if I ever would've made that leap so fast unless I joined Lovable.

“I've never used AI there the way I use AI at Lovable and the things that I'm capable of accomplishing at Lovable, and I don't know if I ever would've made that leap so fast unless I joined Lovable.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

18 / evaluation

Our NDR is quite good because when people build, they want to buy more credits to build. So, we're seeing really good revenue retention, but we're honestly more focused right now on engagement retention than even paid retention because our North Star is just to get as much usage as possible, and we will fix and tune our monetization model afterwards.

“Our NDR is quite good because when people build, they want to buy more credits to build. So, we're seeing really good revenue retention, but we're honestly more focused right now on engagement retention than even paid retention because our North Star is just to get as much usage as possible, and we will fix and tune our monetization model afterwards.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

20 / recommendation

Yes. And honestly, the longer you wait, the better it is because that way your entire company will be trained to be responsible for growth as opposed to putting this one island with a growth team and saying, "They're going to be growing," and what is the rest of the company doing?

“Yes. And honestly, the longer you wait, the better it is because that way your entire company will be trained to be responsible for growth as opposed to putting this one island with a growth team and saying, "They're going to be growing," and what is the rest of the company doing?”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

21 / evaluation

If you have the overall business slowing down, your head of growth is destined to fail because the reason business is slowing down is much deeper than not having a growth team.

“If you have the overall business slowing down, your head of growth is destined to fail because the reason business is slowing down is much deeper than not having a growth team.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

22 / evaluation

Number two, this was my favorite and it might be a little spicy. Never ever once have I seen a rebrand or redesign, especially of UK marketing site produce good performance results.

“Number two, this was my favorite and it might be a little spicy. Never ever once have I seen a rebrand or redesign, especially of UK marketing site produce good performance results.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

24 / commitment

The goal here should be, we will launch, we will probably see a hit, model out and forecast for a hit, and then give yourself two to three months at the minimum, ideally more like six months, to really optimize it back to a good standing where it can potentially outperform.

“The goal here should be, we will launch, we will probably see a hit, model out and forecast for a hit, and then give yourself two to three months at the minimum, ideally more like six months, to really optimize it back to a good standing where it can potentially outperform.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

26 / preference

Do not start from scratch. It's the worst thing that you can do because you can waste so many cycles on trying to do something that probably has already been solved, which means how do you approach this as a result?

“Do not start from scratch. It's the worst thing that you can do because you can waste so many cycles on trying to do something that probably has already been solved, which means how do you approach this as a result?”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

27 / prediction

Actually, I think growth teams are becoming one of those departments that has a higher head of growth firing rate than even CMOs because people are coming in, there's a bunch of expectations, "Hey, you're ahead of growth or you are a growth pm or you're a growth marketer, you're supposed to drive growth.

“Actually, I think growth teams are becoming one of those departments that has a higher head of growth firing rate than even CMOs because people are coming in, there's a bunch of expectations, "Hey, you're ahead of growth or you are a growth pm or you're a growth marketer, you're supposed to drive growth.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

28 / preference

I do a lot of advising and consulting because for my brain of how I work and how I like to puzzle solve and pattern match, it works much better to be horizontal across many companies versus vertical on one specific one.

“I do a lot of advising and consulting because for my brain of how I work and how I like to puzzle solve and pattern match, it works much better to be horizontal across many companies versus vertical on one specific one.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

29 / recommendation

Number three, this is my favorite, and it might be a little spicy because if there's any marketers listening out here, but doing rebrand more specifically, homepage redesign to drive growth.

“Number three, this is my favorite, and it might be a little spicy because if there's any marketers listening out here, but doing rebrand more specifically, homepage redesign to drive growth.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

30 / evaluation

A lot of times we think, oh, we're going to get so much more acquisition if we add Google Auth or if we add Facebook Auth or Slack Auth or Microsoft Auth, whichever auth you want to add to it.

“A lot of times we think, oh, we're going to get so much more acquisition if we add Google Auth or if we add Facebook Auth or Slack Auth or Microsoft Auth, whichever auth you want to add to it.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

32 / prediction

I think with everything that is happening with AI and SEO at the moment, your biggest claim to fame on content strategy will be harnessing user generated content.

“I think with everything that is happening with AI and SEO at the moment, your biggest claim to fame on content strategy will be harnessing user generated content.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

33 / recommendation

You're just going to cut it at its knees immediately if you're not going to let it evolve into something that can be monetized, that can be responsible for acquisition. So example on Mirrorverse, which is a user-generated content library of all of the mirror boards that people create, it took us probably 18 months until we started putting metrics expectations on it.

“You're just going to cut it at its knees immediately if you're not going to let it evolve into something that can be monetized, that can be responsible for acquisition. So example on Mirrorverse, which is a user-generated content library of all of the mirror boards that people create, it took us probably 18 months until we started putting metrics expectations on it.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

34 / recommendation

There's still so much about knowing your user, understanding the market for your brain to connect all of those dots and to know what needs to be an experience that your customers are going to want. That if scientific data, like a very tight determination of the probability that this is a success, it's important, absolutely do it because it might be a really big strategical pivot that you're planning to do.

“There's still so much about knowing your user, understanding the market for your brain to connect all of those dots and to know what needs to be an experience that your customers are going to want. That if scientific data, like a very tight determination of the probability that this is a success, it's important, absolutely do it because it might be a really big strategical pivot that you're planning to do.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

36 / belief

Obviously that includes a lot of individual contributor work that you have to do in the area potentially that is not comfortable, but that's the fastest way to grow in your career, so I think that's a necessary step for a successful execution.

“Obviously that includes a lot of individual contributor work that you have to do in the area potentially that is not comfortable, but that's the fastest way to grow in your career, so I think that's a necessary step for a successful execution.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

37 / belief

I don't think you'll notice it right away, but over time I think people become blind to channel communication if it's not applicable to them because, "Fool me once, shame on you.

“I don't think you'll notice it right away, but over time I think people become blind to channel communication if it's not applicable to them because, "Fool me once, shame on you.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

38 / belief

Product and marketing now pull together to create the pipeline and give it to sales, but product can no longer sit on this island as a feature factory. It only works with the top-down sales organizations, which, as I said, I think are going to be heavily disrupted over the next 10 years with value-first product-led growth.

“Product and marketing now pull together to create the pipeline and give it to sales, but product can no longer sit on this island as a feature factory. It only works with the top-down sales organizations, which, as I said, I think are going to be heavily disrupted over the next 10 years with value-first product-led growth.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

39 / belief

I agree with myself, so I should say that every single sales-led company should at least add some product-assisted tactics, but I would even take it further that every sales-led company should start educating and putting pressure on the product to own monetization components of the business.

“I agree with myself, so I should say that every single sales-led company should at least add some product-assisted tactics, but I would even take it further that every sales-led company should start educating and putting pressure on the product to own monetization components of the business.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

41 / uncertainty

I don't know if I would start there right from the beginning unless you actually understand the data because buying a platform will not bridge the gap for you understanding what actually matters in your data.

“I don't know if I would start there right from the beginning unless you actually understand the data because buying a platform will not bridge the gap for you understanding what actually matters in your data.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

44 / prediction

Velocity is the trickiest one just because we don't have a very easy way to measure velocity in our transactional data, but it's actually one of the most powerful one that triggers the right timing for the involvement because the change in velocity either number of users being added or events being sent or storage that is being utilized is usually a fantastic predictor.

“Velocity is the trickiest one just because we don't have a very easy way to measure velocity in our transactional data, but it's actually one of the most powerful one that triggers the right timing for the involvement because the change in velocity either number of users being added or events being sent or storage that is being utilized is usually a fantastic predictor.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

45 / evaluation

However, what product-led sales assumes is that there is an escalator to an enterprise-level solution, and enterprise escalator is valuable to attach sales resources to because products fundamentally do a really bad job at communicating enterprise-level value prop.

“However, what product-led sales assumes is that there is an escalator to an enterprise-level solution, and enterprise escalator is valuable to attach sales resources to because products fundamentally do a really bad job at communicating enterprise-level value prop.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

46 / evaluation

They have faster turnaround time and our product is performing better. That's an enterprise-level value prop and, again, we're, I think, in the product development space gotten a little bit lazy of actually showcasing that enterprise value in product.

“They have faster turnaround time and our product is performing better. That's an enterprise-level value prop and, again, we're, I think, in the product development space gotten a little bit lazy of actually showcasing that enterprise value in product.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

47 / evaluation

Now, leads are those buyers. They're those decision-makers in the account, and if you have a smaller segment, so for example you had more in small businesses or lower end of mid-market segment, you may very have PQLs in there because user is maybe equals buyer.

“Now, leads are those buyers. They're those decision-makers in the account, and if you have a smaller segment, so for example you had more in small businesses or lower end of mid-market segment, you may very have PQLs in there because user is maybe equals buyer.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

48 / evaluation

" I think we all in tech, and I specifically point a finger at my industry in B2B industry, just got a little bit complacent with revenue ownership from product side.

“" I think we all in tech, and I specifically point a finger at my industry in B2B industry, just got a little bit complacent with revenue ownership from product side.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

49 / evaluation

Self-serve monetization has a cap of about $10,000. That's just how much we're able to process on the credit cards before they start getting flagged and declined by the banks and how much we as a consumers and prosumers are even willing to put on our credit card because not all credit cards have limits of over 10, 20, 30, $40,000.

“Self-serve monetization has a cap of about $10,000. That's just how much we're able to process on the credit cards before they start getting flagged and declined by the banks and how much we as a consumers and prosumers are even willing to put on our credit card because not all credit cards have limits of over 10, 20, 30, $40,000.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

50 / commitment

I'm passively exploring if I'm going to take another interim position, but between interim roles I always take about six to eight months of break because interim rolls are very intense because there's so many deliverables that are loaded in in the first year that you're working at the company, so I'm just advising.

“I'm passively exploring if I'm going to take another interim position, but between interim roles I always take about six to eight months of break because interim rolls are very intense because there's so many deliverables that are loaded in in the first year that you're working at the company, so I'm just advising.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

51 / evaluation

I think that's the key in order to create repeatable, sustainable, and competitively defensible growth model that is driving growth culture and growth mindset across the company because it's something that people can grasp on.

“I think that's the key in order to create repeatable, sustainable, and competitively defensible growth model that is driving growth culture and growth mindset across the company because it's something that people can grasp on.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

52 / prediction

However, very quickly, you will realize that even your sales-led inbound of going on top of usage is going to start drying up because if you're not putting continuous pressure on growing those user growth, of driving that community, of driving that user habitual loops even on self-serve monetization, your enterprise will not grow if that was the root of your growth, if that was your original DNA.

“However, very quickly, you will realize that even your sales-led inbound of going on top of usage is going to start drying up because if you're not putting continuous pressure on growing those user growth, of driving that community, of driving that user habitual loops even on self-serve monetization, your enterprise will not grow if that was the root of your growth, if that was your original DNA.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

53 / recommendation

You will take a whole village in order to activate something like that. So I think that there is freemium case for everyone, especially if you are trying to land a customer that you might not even wanting to monetize at the beginning, by the way, because you need to have a very good strategy behind your freemium.

“You will take a whole village in order to activate something like that. So I think that there is freemium case for everyone, especially if you are trying to land a customer that you might not even wanting to monetize at the beginning, by the way, because you need to have a very good strategy behind your freemium.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

54 / evaluation

Tenures of leaders are shrinking because we are optimized on both sides during recruiting process to sell rainbows and unicorns and butterflies, that everything is beautiful, and this is match made in heaven, and either side is afraid to talk about problems that exist and understand whether they're going to be the right match to try to solve those problems.

“Tenures of leaders are shrinking because we are optimized on both sides during recruiting process to sell rainbows and unicorns and butterflies, that everything is beautiful, and this is match made in heaven, and either side is afraid to talk about problems that exist and understand whether they're going to be the right match to try to solve those problems.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

55 / evaluation

What does it mean to have strong product market fit is that you, A, have retention, obviously. So it takes some time to actually measure retention, and I would say at least six months to almost a year post the initial offering, that's when you truly know whether customers are retaining with you, and number two, that you actually have some ability to acquire and monetize your customers potentially from the beginning.

“What does it mean to have strong product market fit is that you, A, have retention, obviously. So it takes some time to actually measure retention, and I would say at least six months to almost a year post the initial offering, that's when you truly know whether customers are retaining with you, and number two, that you actually have some ability to acquire and monetize your customers potentially from the beginning.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

56 / prediction

The more industries and more products go through this evolution, the better it is for us, the users, because they actually are going to build solving our problems as opposed to solving checklists of security, data storage, and compliance.

“The more industries and more products go through this evolution, the better it is for us, the users, because they actually are going to build solving our problems as opposed to solving checklists of security, data storage, and compliance.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

57 / evaluation

If somebody from the outside comes in and just slaps their previous company's growth model onto your product, it's most likely going to have 99% rejection rate and failure rate within your customers and within your employees, unless you give them actually time to figure out what your growth model is, and that might take three to six months, potentially even longer, depending on complexity of your product. So if you want quick wins, I think internal hires are the way to go.

“If somebody from the outside comes in and just slaps their previous company's growth model onto your product, it's most likely going to have 99% rejection rate and failure rate within your customers and within your employees, unless you give them actually time to figure out what your growth model is, and that might take three to six months, potentially even longer, depending on complexity of your product. So if you want quick wins, I think internal hires are the way to go.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

58 / evaluation

In B2B, we've created the superficial ladder that enterprise buyer makes the decision for B2B products and they, not looking for shine, they're looking for utility, they're looking for efficiency, they're looking to solve a problem for their organization, but they're not even the users of the product in the first place. So the first wave of B2B products has been these cold interfaces, these enterprise feature checklists, these unusable products that anytime a user goes into it, they cannot wait to get out of it because they're not the ones making a decision.

“In B2B, we've created the superficial ladder that enterprise buyer makes the decision for B2B products and they, not looking for shine, they're looking for utility, they're looking for efficiency, they're looking to solve a problem for their organization, but they're not even the users of the product in the first place. So the first wave of B2B products has been these cold interfaces, these enterprise feature checklists, these unusable products that anytime a user goes into it, they cannot wait to get out of it because they're not the ones making a decision.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

59 / preference

If your product is not able to activate and, more importantly, engage via habitual loops and be in the habit forming zone, then you'll have no chance to hooking an acquisition engine into your product because acquisition and product led means users invite or users refer or users create content that attracts other users.

“If your product is not able to activate and, more importantly, engage via habitual loops and be in the habit forming zone, then you'll have no chance to hooking an acquisition engine into your product because acquisition and product led means users invite or users refer or users create content that attracts other users.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast

60 / recommendation

That would be crazy, but if you want to play around with it, then absolutely go for it, and there's no time bound of how long it will take you to prototype something and understand whether MongoDB is the right solution for you. It's a great trial, where any production use case will go into their paid monetization model, but it doesn't give you this weird concept of you only have seven days to do it because we're busy, I'm busy, week flies by, and sometimes I don't have time to invest into discovery of a new product.

“That would be crazy, but if you want to play around with it, then absolutely go for it, and there's no time bound of how long it will take you to prototype something and understand whether MongoDB is the right solution for you. It's a great trial, where any production use case will go into their paid monetization model, but it doesn't give you this weird concept of you only have seven days to do it because we're busy, I'm busy, week flies by, and sometimes I don't have time to invest into discovery of a new product.”
Speaker
Elena Verna
Publisher
Lenny's Podcast
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