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Sandy Diao

Growth | Descript, Meta, Pinterest

Sandy Diao is a highly experienced full-stack growth executive known for scaling user bases from zero to millions of monthly active users and revenue through innovative growth strategies and data-driven approaches.

With over a decade of expertise, Sandy has a notable track record of driving growth for major tech companies like Facebook, Pinterest, Indiegogo, and Descript, as well as founding Drift International, a growth advisory firm.

Sandy's educational background includes a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of California, Berkeley, and extensive coursework in areas like Python, iOS Development, Blockchain Technology, and Full Stack Web Development.

Beyond his professional roles, Sandy has been affiliated with organizations such as Goodwater, Prompt Inversion AI, Frame, AnswersAi, and FlowGPT, serving in various advisory, faculty, and leadership positions.

With a strong focus on growth, Sandy's career has spanned diverse roles from being the Director of Growth at Descript to the Head of Global Growth at Indiegogo, demonstrating his versatility and expertise across different sectors of the tech industry.

Highlights

May 16 · linkedin

The next wave of AI-native startup builders are coming from top schools like UC Berkeley. As a judge at the UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) bi-annual Collider Cup, I recently got to see some of these student builders in action.

𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗜 I've learned how important it is to understand how students are leveraging AI today—they're the first generation of daily AI power users. From assignments and studying to research and time management, students are using AI every single day.

𝗔𝗜 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 I was bracing myself to hear “AI” as the headline in the pitches – instead, most teams treated AI as a tool for building rather than as a product itself. This approach is a great way to ensure that products becomes better as the models become more powerful. By using AI as a tool for building, model improvements can directly translate into improvements in product capabilities over time, rather than being at risk of direct competition from foundational model providers.

𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲𝗱 We’re entering the early majority phase of the AI adoption curve. This means that we may soon hit a moment where we stop explaining that there’s AI in the product, and it will simply assumed to be in there. If you’re not building with AI now, you're likely to be behind in a few quarters.

𝗧𝗼𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴:

𝗔𝗜 + 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 Combining specialist backgrounds and private datasets with AI models. 

  • Swim team using computer vision on practice recordings build to help coaches better monitor athlete stats and improve technical training.
  • Football team using computer vision to take field sport recordings and flatten them into strategic maps for game analysis.

𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘂𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿

  • Bioinformatics platform enabling academic research teams to use natural language to manage complex research workflows and automate testing.
  • AI receptionist who picks up calls and schedules appointments at clinics powered by language models powering speech models.

𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵/𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵

  • Improve access to medicine in low middle income countries with AI-powered features like drug authentication and automated inventory management
  • Alternative milk grown sustainably and naturally in a lab without cows

With lower barriers to apply specialized data with AI models + new AI-native talent entering the workforce, I’m looking forward to benefitting from the solutions that are brewing from top schools like UC Berkeley.

May 13 · linkedin

Whitelisted influencer ads convert better than running ads through your own company account.

Whitelisting is the process of an influencer giving you advertising permissions to their social media account, which allows you to run ads through their profile. I've used whitelisting ads at Descript and saw conversion rates perform 2x-16x better compared to promoting something through an owned brand account.

The opportunity for improving paid social ads performance is massive:

  • It's more cost-effective for video ad creative: Marketing videos can cost $2.5k- $50k per minute to create, whereas sponsoring nano and micro influencers to film reviews can be 5x-100x less expensive (Synthesia, ‘23).

  • Content will get higher engagement from their fanbase: Influencer content can generate 16x more engagement than paid or owned content (Sprout Social, ‘24).

  • Higher authenticity also means greater conversions: Over two-thirds of people trust reviews and opinions posted online by friends and influencers more than brand ads (Forbes, ‘23).

How to whitelist an influencer video:

  1. Partner with an influencer to create original content about your product with free product or sponsorship fees.
  2. Determine the budget / time duration for the ad and request to get ad account access on the influencer’s profile.
  3. Add a tracking link (UTM or affiliate link) to include in the ad text or voiceover and to track conversions.

Influencers know their audiences best, so by letting them own creative and then boosting it further to their audiences, you can improve conversions.

I’ll cover strategies like this on how companies can leverage influencer marketing to augment paid social strategies in an upcoming free live event I’m hosting with Reforge. Hope to see you there.

Free registration here: https://lnkd.in/gvR9M2YU

Whitelisted influencer ads convert better than running ads through your own company account. 

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Sandy Diao
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