20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf

20Product: On Running's CPO on How to Create Emotion Through Product | Why 99% of Products Fail and How to Create Cults Around Products | The Biggest Product Mistakes On Have Made & Lessons Learned with Gérald Marolf

Author: Harry Stebbings December 19, 2025 Duration: 56:00

Gérald Marolf is the Chief Product Officer at On Running. Gérald oversees the full range of On's shoes, apparel and accessories to make sure each delivers performance, comfort and style. Before On, Gérald spent over a decade building consumer brands with collaborators such as Microsoft and Ferrari.

AGENDA:

00:00 – Why Most "Great Products" Fail to Create Emotion

03:00 – How Perfume Taught Me Everything About Desire & Product

06:10 – The Brutal Reality of Building Physical vs Digital Products

16:00 – Why "Simple Design" Is Overrated and Dangerous

23:00 – Why Vuori is the Brand to Short in Consumer 

28:30 – The Biggest Product Mistake: Listening to Customers Too Much

32:10 – On Only Do Tennis Because of Roger Federer

38:30 – Were We Too Late to Marathon Running? A Painful Admission

43:40 – The Most Controversial Product On Has Ever Launched

49:00 – Are Counterfeits Good or Bad in Fashion?

 


Hosted by Harry Stebbings, The Twenty Minute VC (20VC) pulls back the curtain on the high-stakes worlds of venture capital and startup building. Each episode is a compact, twenty-minute dive into the minds shaping the future of technology. You’ll hear candid conversations with legendary investors, the very individuals who fund and guide the next generation of companies, featuring voices like Sequoia's Doug Leone and Benchmark's Bill Gurley. Beyond the capital, this podcast dedicates time to the founders themselves. Weekly, Stebbings sits down with transformative entrepreneurs such as Spotify's Daniel Ek, LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman, and Snowflake's Frank Slootman, unpacking the real journeys behind their iconic companies. The format is direct and focused, cutting straight to the core insights on funding strategies, pitch dynamics, and the personal philosophies that drive success. Tuning into this podcast means gaining an unfiltered perspective from both sides of the table, all delivered in a concise and accessible style that fits into your day.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
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