First Round Capital

Playing It Safe with Marketing Is the Riskiest Thing You Can Do | Sheila Joglekar Vashee (Figma CMO)

Sheila Joglekar Vashee, CMO of Figma, argues that in 2026 marketing cannot be a safe, siloed function; it must serve as the glue linking product, revenue, and the user community. She stresses that excellent marketing creates coherence across these dimensions, ensuring that what the company builds, who it serves, and why it matters all translate into sustainable growth while resonating authentically with the design community. Vashee warns against assigning separate end‑goals to sales, product, or engineering. Instead, she advocates a single, shared objective—revenue growth—while allowing each team to own its input metrics. The most consequential decision she made last year was to broaden Figma’s definition of design, targeting engineers and marketers through the “Figma Make” campaign, events, and thought‑leadership, thereby expanding the addressable market without abandoning core designers. She illustrates the tension between growth hacks and brand integrity, noting that flashy TikTok ads may drive clicks but erode long‑term perception. “Marketing is both science—LTV/CAC, ROI—and art—what we say and how we say it,” she says, emphasizing that the CMO must constantly balance these forces. The takeaway for SaaS leaders is clear: align cross‑functional incentives, treat marketing as a portfolio manager allocating resources between steady‑state growth engines and high‑risk moonshots, and protect brand authenticity. Companies that fail to integrate these elements risk becoming irrelevant as their product ubiquity grows.