Re-engineering a $4 billion company for the age of AI | Linda Tong, CEO at Weblow

In this episode of The Jess Larsen Show on Innovation & Leadership, Jess sits down with Linda Tong of Webflow to talk about what it takes to reinvent a $4 billion technology company in the middle of the AI revolution. Webflow helped democratize building for the web, but as AI makes it easier than ever to create websites, apps, content, and digital products, Linda argues that simply being able to build is no longer the advantage. The real differentiators are taste, craft, usefulness, and whether what you create actually solves a meaningful problem. Linda breaks down how Webflow is evolving from a website-building platform into a broader digital experience and growth platform, helping teams improve discovery, SEO, conversion, experimentation, and optimization after a site goes live. She explains how AI can continuously test content, improve customer journeys, surface recommendations, and eventually help businesses create ongoing loops of improvement rather than treating a website as something that is simply built once and published. Jess and Linda also go deep on product leadership and the danger of building more simply because AI makes it possible. Linda shares lessons from her time at the NFL, including how removing thousands of pages and features from its mobile experience ultimately drove stronger engagement and better ratings. Her philosophy is simple: more features do not automatically create a better product. Great product leadership often means deciding what not to build and focusing intensely on the few things customers actually value. The conversation also covers leading through disruption, managing a distributed company, simplifying complex enterprise software, and navigating bias as a leader. Linda closes with her view of the next waves of AI, moving from helping people create, to helping them make what they create matter, and eventually toward systems that can continuously improve and innovate alongside us. This episode is a sharp conversation about AI, product strategy, innovation, leadership, Webflow, digital growth, and what it takes to build something people actually want in a world where creating is becoming nearly effortless.

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