Between Two COO's with Michael Koenig

Peter Rojas, New Products at Mozilla, on Why Ideas Don't Decide Success

Listen Later

Watch on YouTube.

Peter Rojas has built new things at almost every scale there is, and he planted the seed for this show years ago in an email to Michael.

In this episode, Peter and Michael discuss:

  • How building new products inside a big company differs from a startup, and why you have to invest ahead of traction
  • Why corporate product development is a harder numbers game than a venture portfolio
  • AI, vibe coding, and the Mozilla Pioneers program for widening the top of the funnel
  • Why incumbents keep losing the next technology wave
  • Why coordination breaks down at scale, and the clarity that fixes it

    • About Peter: Peter Rojas co-founded Gizmodo and Engadget, two publications that changed how people understand technology. He has been an operator and investor across AOL, Meta, and BetaWorks, where he was a founder and VC. Today he leads new product development at Mozilla and runs Mozilla Pioneers.

    00:00 Cold open

    01:46 The email that started the show

    03:33 Startup vs building inside a company

    06:57 The corporate product numbers game

    11:03 Vibe coding and Mozilla Pioneers

    15:13 When a trusted brand is the advantage

    18:04 Why incumbents lose the next wave

    21:58 Meta's metaverse bet vs AI

    25:44 If I were running Meta

    29:02 Was the VR bet a failure

    30:27 Why coordination breaks at scale

    35:07 Fear, focus, and the CEO filter

    38:56 How Mozilla runs on KPIs

    40:30 The founder who hid his idea

    46:33 Where to find Peter

    Resources mentioned:

    • Mozilla Pioneers: https://newproducts.mozilla.org/mozilla-pioneers/
    • WordPress: https://wordpress.org
    • Lovable: https://lovable.dev
    • Replit: https://replit.com
    • Claude Code: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-code
    • Rec Room: https://recroom.com

      • Connect with Peter:

      • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterrojas/

        • Connect with Michael:

        • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-koenig514
        • Building Helm: https://helmapp.ai

          • Subscribe to Between Two COOs:

          • Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/between-two-coos/id1635533318
          • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2NjVgGm6mqLPEbJUvHnHEH
          • Newsletter: https://betweentwocoos.com
          • Watch on YouTube.
            • ...more
            View all episodesView all episodes
            Download on the App Store
            Between Two COO's with Michael KoenigBy Michael Koenig
            • 5
            • 5
            • 5
            • 5
            • 5

            5

            11 ratings