Gokul Rajaram of Marathon - How AI Will Reinvent Ad Platforms

"World of DaaS"

"World of DaaS"
Gokul Rajaram of Marathon - How AI Will Reinvent Ad Platforms
Sep 09, 2025
Word of DaaS with Auren Hoffman

Gokul Rajaram is a founding partner at Marathon Management Partners and former product leader who helped build Google AdSense and Facebook's advertising platform. He serves on the boards of Pinterest, Coinbase, and The Trade Desk, and previously led product teams at Square and DoorDash.

In this episode of World of DaaS, Gokul and Auren discuss:

  • Building massive advertising platforms at Google and Facebook
  • How AI is transforming content recommendations and ads
  • The transition from operator to venture investor
  • Why founder mode debates miss the nuance of leadership

Looking for more tech, data and venture capital intel? Head to worldofdaas.com for our podcast, newsletter and events, and follow us on X @worldofdaas.

You can find Auren Hoffman on X at @auren and Gokul Rajaram on X at @gokulr.

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)