CPO Rising Series: Vercel CPO on Why Judgment Is the Last Real Moat

What happens when the cost of building software trends toward zero? When anyone can ship anything at any time, code stops being the competitive advantage. In this episode of the CPO Rising series, hosted by CentralSquare Technologies CPO Denise Hemke, Vercel CPO Tom Occhino speaks on what the moat actually looks like in an AI native world, why he shifted from roadmap curator to market interpreter and narrative builder, and what it took to build a culture where reliability and innovation do not fight each other but feed each other. From inventing Facebook mentions to creating React to scaling Vercel's self-driving infrastructure, Tom brings a rare engineering-first perspective on what product leadership is becoming.