Richard King

VP Product Marketing

I’m a builder at heart, with five startups and three exits under my belt. 

My passion lies at the intersection of product, marketing, sales, and data - so you’ll often hear me talking about product marketing.

My entrepreneurial journey has taught me the value of resilience, innovation, and questioning the crowd rather than following it. Most importantly, it’s shown me the power of community.

👉 Why I share on LinkedIn:

I believe in collective learning: I want to provide tried and tested insights to help you navigate your career, whether you're a founder, marketer, or looking to learn something new. 

👉 What I talk about: 

1️⃣ Building bootstrapped companies
Why go-to-market efficiencies are a non-negotiable 

2️⃣ How to spot and nurture talent
Strategies for building high-performing and efficient teams

3️⃣ Product marketing - why won’t I shut up about it?
How effective product marketing drives business success.

4️⃣ Operational excellence + a great culture. It is possible.
The nuts and bolts of business operations and fostering a winning culture.

5️⃣ What does leadership really mean?
The changing expectations of what it means to be a “boss.”

Go ahead and hit the follow button, and I’ll see you around!

Founder & CEO

Wait for it...

😂


"We need more AI adoption"

I hear this from every exec I talk to.

But here's the problem nobody wants to say out loud.


Most companies are focused on AI fluency.

Training programs. Tool rollouts. Slack channels for "AI tips and tricks" 
Maybe a new hire with AI somewhere in the title.

That's not bad.

But it's not nearly enough imo...

What matters more on top of that is a culture of transparency around how AI is actually being used. And deep cross collaboration between departments so those learnings don't stay siloed.



My 0.02 for you:

There's a real fear around AI right now inside companies.

Think about it from an IC's perspective.

If someone figures out how to automate 30% of their workload using AI, do you think they want to share that with their manager or cowokers? 

What happens when they do? 
Do they get rewarded for being more efficient? 
Or does someone start asking whether their role is still necessary at the same scope?

Will they get more work dumped on them?

That's why people tend to hold their cards way closer to their chest than they should be which is a reason why you don't end up having a lot of collaboration about AI use cases internally unless you're first building psychological safety within your organization as a founder about how you treat AI efficiency and that it's something that should be REWARDED.



We've been working through this at The Alliance.

I've personally been involved in a number of GTM trainings, AI cohorts, and I'm really working on improving the psychological safety and how we're building our culture so that people feel inclined to collaborate and share their workflows, and that it's something that is shown as like we want to reward inside our culture here. 

AKA...

You have to build a culture of trust and psychological safety before you're going to see real AI adoption. That means rewarding people for using AI creatively.

Making it explicit that sharing and cross department collaboration is valued. 
Not letting efficiency gains turn into headcount conversations.

That starts with how YOU set the tone as a leader.

Start with AI safety but you try to push for AI fluency.

You need the right culture in place first imo.



h/t rosssmith for the hilarious clip btw


--


P.S. How are you managing this internally?

Would love to hear your tips below!

Talking truth on leadership, growth & product marketing | 5x founder | 3x exits |

Have you tried turning it off & on again?

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