Alex Komoroske
Alex Komoroske is a strategic leader who merges the practice, theory, and mindset necessary to tackle complex problems. He spent 13 years at Google, where he worked on Search and DoubleClick and led Chrome’s Open Web Platform. He also spearheaded Augmented Reality in Google Maps and developed toolkits to align companywide strategy from the ground up. After serving as Head of Corporate Strategy at Stripe, he is now co-founding a startup aimed at reimagining the web for the AI era. Alex created the popular “Slime Molds” deck, which offers fresh insights into organizational dynamics.
Career (separate track) Skills
Dedicating deliberate time to reflect on and synthesize raw weekly notes transforms fleeting observations into durable strategic insights.
"And I take a lot of notes. And people, I tell people when I'm in meetings with them of like, 'If you see me on my phone or typing, that means I think you said something very interesting and I'm writin..."
High-leverage productivity requires a strict no-meeting buffer day to process information and optimize the following week's systems.
"And the one day I don't take meetings is on Friday, and that's the day I read documents carefully that people had sent me or reflect. And I think to myself, what is the thing that if I had done it bef..."
Overlay: Building AI Products Skills
The AI era inverted traditional software economics by making code cheap to produce but computationally expensive and non-deterministic to execute.
"LLMs allow writing shitty software to be significantly cheaper, not necessarily good software, but good enough in certain contexts. And also it means that there's certain software now that isn't plain..."
Team & Organization Skills
Organizational innovation is most effective when leaders act as 'gardeners' who nurture emergent, self-sustaining ideas rather than 'builders' forcing a rigid plan.
"What I look for instead are things that can be gardened, things that can grow on their own and that you can direct or maybe give a little bit of extra energy to or curate over, and is a totally differ..."