Linda Tong, Webflow CEO, on the new web, AI-powered ops, and how they run Webflow
Get 90 days of Fellow's AI meeting assistant at fellow.app/coo In this episode of Between Two COOs, I’m joined by Linda Tong, the CEO of Webflow. You probably know Webflow as one of the most popular visual development platforms on the internet, powering over 300,000 websites. What you may not know is that Webflow is going all-in on AI – not just in product, but across operations, marketing, and internal tooling. Linda and I get into the hard questions: • What happens to websites when bots, not humans, are the primary visitor? • What’s the real impact of agentic AI on company structure? • How do you lead a team when timelines are collapsing and the tech changes weekly? We also talk about why AI hasn’t just boosted productivity at Webflow — it’s let them build entirely new capabilities that weren’t possible before. Plus: how she thinks about scaling innovation inside a growing org, how her product background shapes how she leads, and a behind-the-scenes story of navigating the SVB bank run from the COO seat. This one goes deep — from tooling to team culture to what’s next for the internet.
Get 90 days of Fellow's AI meeting assistant at fellow.app/coo
Why Linda still codes on weekends — and what it teaches her about the future of AI (6:00)
How AI is changing what Webflow builds — and how fast they build it (3:30–13:00)
What happens when websites are no longer built just for humans (14:00)
The rise of AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and what it means for ops (17:00–21:00)
Favorite LLMs and workflows — from Claude Sonnet to custom GPTs (23:00–26:00)
How Linda builds a culture of innovation — and why bad ideas are worth celebrating (29:00)
Leading through operational ambiguity and defining what to say “no” to (49:00)
How product thinking helps Linda prioritize and run the business (54:00)
Creating an actual in-office “innovation lab” — and what worked (1:04:00)
Wild story: how her team navigated the SVB collapse weekend (1:08:00)
