My Way (with Ivan Buric)

• Global product marketing & cultural localization
• Structuring and scaling PMM teams
• Building in public as a founder
• Public speaking and leadership as learnable skills
• The unseen challenges of parental leave in the workplace

• The US work culture promotes recognition and efficiency but struggles with localization (e.g. German recruiter message formats at LinkedIn).
• European companies require hyper-localization, especially in regulated spaces like FinTech and real estate.

• Big companies offer structure, credibility, and mentorship.
• Theresa’s time at LinkedIn accelerated her skills and gave her the confidence to grow Conto’s PMM team from 0 to 20+.

• Originally aspired to be an actress—naturally drawn to storytelling.
• Developed public speaking skills through structured training (LinkedIn), Toastmasters, and ongoing event speaking.
• Filming and self-review were crucial to improvement.

• At Conto, PMMs were deeply embedded in product development and go-to-market—functioning almost like mini-founders.
• Prioritized hires based on customer readiness, revenue impact, and educational effort required (e.g., interchange revenue vs. new invoicing tools).
• Split team into Product PMMs (deep product understanding) vs. Market PMMs (go-to-market execution by region/segment).

• Used GEMBA sessions (Japanese: “go and see”) for real-time coaching and skill development.
• Created living standards (not rigid processes) to streamline product launches every 2 weeks.
• Weekly updates, structured milestones, and continuous learning helped maintain high execution speed.

• Product marketing = founder training. PMMs already wear hats of storytelling, user research, influencing, and strategy.
• Started Kundra to address the silent crisis of parental leave mismanagement—not a parent herself, but uses that neutrality as a strength.

• Shares her startup journey openly on LinkedIn, Substack, and her own podcast.
• Combines personal storytelling with data-driven insights to build credibility and connection.
• Believes people buy from people, not companies.

“Public speaking is a skill you can learn—and should. Especially in Europe, we don’t emphasize it enough.”— Theresa Gschwandtner

“A good PMM should think like a founder. You own the narrative, the research, the launch, the customer.”

“People don’t buy from companies. They buy from people.”

“Kundra is me, and I am Kundra. That’s why I decided to build in public.”

• 00:00 – Intro and Theresa’s journey: Salzburg to Paris
• 04:00 – Cultural learnings from global companies
• 08:10 – Big brands: stepping stones or distractions?
• 11:00 – Public speaking: nature vs. nurture
• 17:00 – Getting into top companies: strategy over pedigree
• 26:00 – Building and scaling Conto’s product marketing team
• 34:00 – GEMBA & managing larger teams efficiently
• 36:30 – Launching products every 2 weeks using “standards”
• 41:00 – Why product marketers are future founders
• 44:00 – LinkedIn + personal brand building
• 47:00 – The emotional trigger behind Kundra
• 50:00 – Why there’s no modern parental leave solution
• 53:00 – How Kundra works and why it’s needed
• 57:00 – Most surprising part of building a startup
• 59:00 – Where to find Theresa and Kundra

• LinkedIn: Theresa Gschwandtner

  

• Website: kundra.ai

  

• Podcast: Kundra (on Spotify & Apple Podcasts)
• Substack: Kundra Notes

  

• Instagram: @kundra.ai

  

• Aspiring or current product marketers
• Founders exploring go-to-market strategies
• HR professionals dealing with parental leave
• Women in tech and business leadership
• Anyone navigating international work environments