GTM: Lessons from Figma, Dropbox, and Building Iconic Brands in the Age of AI with Figma’s CMO, Sheila Vashee
The GTMnow Podcast
Defining brand as lived experience
Sheila defines brand as what people say when you're not there and the sum of all experiences.
NEW: @Sheila Vashee (CMO of @Figma) joins GTMnow to share how she thinks about brand building across every stage. From selling brownies at age eight, to second marketing hire at Dropbox scaling to $1B+ in annualized revenue, to now leading marketing at one of the most beloved software brands in the world, Sheila has seen it all.
In this conversation, you’ll learn what brand actually means (hint: it's not your logo), how PLG companies make the leap to enterprise, why being obsessively close to your customers is a compounding advantage, and how AI is reshaping the marketing playbook without replacing the human craft that sets great brands apart.
Guest links:- Guest - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheilavashee/
- Guest company - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/figma/
- Guest company website: https://www.figma.com/
Host links:
- Sophie Buonassisi - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/
- Sophie Buonassisi - X (Twitter): https://x.com/sophiebuona
- Newsletter: https://thegtmnewsletter.substack.com
Sponsors:
- HockeyStack - the AI platform that unifies GTM data to help teams convert, expand, and scale. Learn more at https://www.hockeystack.com/
- Granola - the AI notepad that turns meetings into action by capturing context, decisions, and next steps automatically. Head to https://www.granola.ai/gtmfund and get three months free with the code GTMFUND.
Transcript available under the episode here: https://gtmnow.com/tag/podcast/
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Highlights:
00:00 – The brownie stand: why brand building started at age eight
03:55 – How Sheila defines brand: it's what people say when you're not in the room
05:08 – Joining Dropbox as the second marketing hire
06:07 – Space Race: the campaign that defined Dropbox's early strategy
06:56 – What consumer marketing taught her about driving revenue
08:29 – Measuring brand ROI through match market testing
09:15 – How Figma thinks about brand building at a macro level
11:21 – The PLG-to-enterprise equation: what Figma did early that Dropbox waited too long on
15:02 – Why building the enterprise team is both operational and optical
17:12 – How Figma ingests customer feedback at scale
18:26 – AI at Figma: enabling human creativity, not replacing it
21:13 – What the venture side taught her about staying sharp as an operator
22:33 – Why the shift from SEO to GEO is inevitable and what to do about it
23:24 – Why Reddit is back and social is a core growth lever
24:51 – The mentors that changed her trajectory
28:59 – One piece of advice: make good $h!t
For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email gtmnow@gtmfund.com
GTMnow is a media brand brought to you by VC firm, GTMfund: https://gtmfund.com/
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