​How do you know if you’re building the right thing? When should you start caring about design? What signals actually matter when you’re validating an idea — and what do founders consistently waste time on?

​In this fireside chat, we get an uncommon, deeply honest look at product building from someone who’s lived it across three worlds: big tech, high-growth startups, and now growth-stage investing.

​Join us for a conversation with Allen Mask, whose career spans Google, Sonos, and Airbnb, where he helped shape the early Product Marketing function and played a key role in building what eventually became Airbnb Experiences.

​We’ll unpack:

• ​What early-stage founders should actually be focusing on, and what is a complete distraction until much later

• ​How design fits into the earliest stages of product development, and how to think about brand without over-investing prematurely

• ​What signs told the Airbnb team that Experiences was “real,” and the early signals founders should look for in their own ideas

• ​Why later-stage companies struggle with product and design issues that could have been solved far earlier, and how to avoid those traps now

• ​What investors like WestCap listen for when founders talk about product, and what truly signals that a founder knows their user

• ​How intrapreneurship inside companies like Google and Airbnb can be just as entrepreneurial as founding your own company

​Expect an honest, story-rich, highly tactical conversation. You’ll walk away with a sharper sense of what matters at idea and validation stage, what you can ignore until later, and how to build early habits that compound into a better product and a more fundable company.

​Speaker

​Allen Mask

​Allen Mask is an investment Partner at WestCap as well as Managing Partner of CōLab, WestCap’s internal creative studio. He joined our teams in 2020 to emphasize the role of product, brand and marketing as key drivers of investing and value creation. Before joining WestCap, Allen held several executive positions across Wall Street and Silicon Valley, including Sonos, where he was on the management team as Chief of Staff to the CEO and Vice President of Marketing, Intelligence and Partnerships as well as Research and Development. Before Sonos, Allen founded the Product Marketing team at Airbnb where he was also a General Manager on Magical Trips, the initiative that led to Airbnb Experiences. Allen started his career in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs and is also a Google alumnus, having worked in a variety of sales, brand management and business development roles across Search, YouTube, Android and Google Play.

​Allen represents WestCap on a variety of non-profit and commercial boards, including serving as WestCap’s Director at Preply, Found and Hunt Club.

​Location

​​Fullsteam ATC

​​320 Blackwell St #101, Durham, NC 27701

​Parking

​Free parking is available at the American Tobacco Campus North Deck, courtesy of CBC Real Estate.

• ​Map to: 305 W Pettigrew St, Durham, NC 27701

• ​Use the 2nd floor and above. (Please do not park on first floor.)

​QUESTIONS?

​This session is part of Raleigh-Durham Startup Week. Click here to learn more about the event, plus get answers to your FAQs.

​TRACK SUPPORTER

​Thank you to Pendo for supporting the Product & Design Track at #RDSW26!