Product Operator to Founder Journey - Powered by AI

Hosted by Dr. Marily Nika and Cassie Campbell

Fri, Nov 21, 2025

7:00 PM UTC (1 hour)

Virtual (Zoom)

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Featured in Lenny’s List
AI Product Management Bootcamp & Certification by AI Product Academy
Dr. Marily Nika
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What you'll learn

From Operator to Founder Mindset

How to shift from product leadership inside large orgs to founder-level decision-ma

Applying Product Strategy to Early-Stage Startup Building

How I used tried-and-true product principles to go from vibe-coding student to pre-seed founder.

AI as a Co-Founder

A behind-the-scenes look at how I leverage AI daily to strategic design, copy, technical execution even fundraising prep

Building AI-Forward, Not AI-Dependent

Why “AI-first” doesn’t mean “AI-everywhere” how to create durable advantage in the AI era

Why this topic matters

The path from seasoned product operator to founder is no longer linear. I’ll share how I used the same frameworks I taught and led at the VP level — applied to a personal project that turned into a fundable company. When a partner told me “we’ll buy you if you figure this out,” I realized I had discovered a real market signal — & that the AI-enabled founder journey is just beginning.

You'll learn from

Dr. Marily Nika

Gen AI PM Lead @ Google | ex-Meta, Fellow @ Harvard | TED AI Speaker | 40u40

AI PM Newsletter (30k+)

🔗 LinkedIn (90k+)

❌ Twitter

🎥 YouTube channel

🤝 Coaching


Based in Silicon Valley, Dr. Marily Nika is an award-winning AI Product Management leader & one of the world's best AI educators, with 12+ years of experience at Google & Meta, with a PhD in Machine Learning. Featured in TechCrunch, executive Fellow at Harvard, TED AI Presenter.


Marily created the first (and best) AI Product Management Certification on Maven. Marily is also a keynote speaker (TED AI / 3 x TEDx) and has been recognized for her contributions in AI & tech several times: Amplitude most influencial product leader, medal of Outstanding Achievement, WISE Influence Award, 2020's Top 100 Women in tech, Emerging Leader Award, 2021's 40 under 40 list.


Marily is also an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School where she teaches AI Product Management.


She has taught over 8k students on Maven and offers these courses:


✉️ maven@aiproduct.com

Reach out for corporate trainings and group/student discounts.

Cassie Campbell

Founder CEO of Arete.coach | Product Strategy & Leadership Coach

Building Arete.coach to help leaders become the best versions of themselves to usher in a human-centric future of work with AI. After 20 years as a product leader - including VP roles at multiple scale-up startups - I've worked with conscious leaders and others who lacked access to the transformational support that I believe AI + leadership coaching can now provide.


I'm building the initial platform myself using AI coding agents with SnapDev, which perfectly embodies our philosophy: AI amplifying human capability rather than replacing it. Through my own executive coaching journeys and years leading teams under intense pressure, I learned that sustainable leadership combines strategic execution with authentic human connection.

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