Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 2/5

Ubiquity, not age, causes brands to lose their coolness

Sheila Joglekar Vashee · Playing it safe with marketing is the riskiest thing you can do | Sheila Joglekar Vashee (Figma CMO) · Jun 4, 2026 · at 13:15

Figma CMO Sheila Joglekar Vashee explains how scaling companies risk losing their cultural edge as they mature.

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“What changes that is actually ubiquity, not, like, how long the company's been around.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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