In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Vijaye Raji, Co-founder and CEO of Statsig, the fast-growing product experimentation platform recently valued at $1.1 billion following a $100M Series C round—and just acquired by OpenAI in a landmark $1.1B all-equity deal.
Before the acquisition, Vijaye spent over a decade at Facebook, where he served as VP and Head of Entertainment, launching creator tools, livestreaming features, and the earliest version of Reels. That experience inspired him to build Statsig, a platform that empowers product teams to experiment, iterate, and ship with confidence—used by leading companies like Microsoft and Notion.
Now, as OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer of Applications, Vijaye will oversee product engineering for ChatGPT and help accelerate the company’s enterprise roadmap. In this conversation, he shares the original vision behind Statsig, the tough lessons from going multi-product, and why AI-native experimentation is the future of product building.
What you’ll learn:
- Vijaye’s journey from Facebook’s internal tools to OpenAI’s CTO of Applications.
- How Statsig evolved from an experimentation engine into a full decision-making stack.
- Why large enterprises are ditching homegrown tools for best-in-class platforms.
- How AI is powering everything from feature flagging to self-healing products.
Key Takeaways 👇
- From Startup to OpenAI: Why StatSig’s platform and customer base made it one of OpenAI’s largest acquisitions yet.
- AI as an Operating Layer: How Vijaye is thinking about AI-native observability, prompt evaluation, and synthetic user data.
- Scaling with Product-Led Growth: Lessons in going enterprise while keeping experimentation at the core.
Social Links:
- Follow our Podcast on Tik Tok here
- Follow Product School on LinkedIn here
- Join Product School's free events here
- Find out more about Product School here
Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Vijaye Raji
Social Links:
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.