Rafe Colburn

Chief Product & Technology Officer, Etsy

Search every verified Rafe Colburn interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Rafe Colburn, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Etsy, discussed the company's approach to artificial intelligence in a January 2026 podcast appearance. He stated that Etsy provides OpenAI with a product feed and has a checkout integration that allows customers to purchase items directly through ChatGPT. Colburn described customers acquired through that channel as "valuable." He also outlined Etsy's internal policy on AI use, saying that employees are responsible for code they check in regardless of whether AI tools were used to create it, adding that using AI is acceptable if it saves time or improves quality. In a 2024 talk, Colburn argued that engineering teams should "own velocity" and that they are best equipped to optimize how work is sequenced to improve efficiency. He said that in the current economic climate, companies are asking how to get more output from existing engineering teams rather than hiring more engineers. Colburn also noted that engineers need to explain the business value of their work to be taken seriously by product managers and executives, and that estimation is a necessary cost estimate rather than something to be refused.