Lightning Lessons

Why “Builders” Are Replacing “Founders”

Hosted by Dr. Marily Nika and Colin Matthews

Thu, Nov 6, 2025

5:00 PM UTC (30 minutes)

Virtual (Zoom)

Free to join

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Go deeper with a course

AI Builder Bootcamp & Certification
Dr. Marily Nika, Justin Fineberg, Dr. Tatyana Mamut, and Jacob Bank
View syllabus

What you'll learn

The rise of the solo technical founder

How AI tools eliminate early staffing needs.

From idea to MVP alone

How a single person can now design, ship, and market with AI support.

The new founder mindset

Why product velocity and tool literacy matter more than fundraising.

Why this topic matters

In the AI era, founding teams are shrinking. Collin argues that “builders” (hands-on creators who can leverage AI) are outpacing traditional founders who manage others. This lightning lesson explores how creation, not coordination, is becoming the ultimate leadership skill. Participants will leave with a clear view of how to stay relevant by building, not delegating.

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.

Colin Matthews

Instructor, AI Prototyping for PMs

Colin Matthews is the Founder of Tech for Product, where over 8,500+ product professionals learn hands-on technical skills for the AI era. A product leader turned educator, Colin built his following through his Maven course on AI Prototyping for Product Managers and his writing on bridging engineering fluency with product insight.


Previously, he led technical product development at Datavant and SeamlessMD, and contributed to Pluralsight as an author teaching data science foundations. Colin’s mission is simple: empower PMs to speak the language of builders.

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