Aakash Gupta

Imagine you’re meeting a VC today and pitching your company. Now, also imagine the VC goes home tonight and tells his or her spouse about the meeting with you. How do you think the VC would (or should) describe your product to the spouse? Remember, this is for someone who doesn’t have any context, and probably doesn’t have time to listen the whole story. If you can think of a story version that's plain and simple -- how you want the VC to describe your product to the spouse -- perhaps that version should be your pitch in the first place?

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Bold prediction for 2025: Investors will pay founders to access their venture data. Founders own their data and grant access to investors for a fee. This shift promotes transparency, trust, and efficiency in fundraising, while giving startups a new revenue stream.

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Three lessons from building and launching a P2P payments app without doing the proper customer validation first (despite knowing better): 1) Building something you need is a great starting point - but not enough to validate an idea. As someone drawn to building solutions, I’m an early tech adopter. This led me to overestimate consumers’ willingness to onboard, especially with a P2P payments app that requires KYC/KYB compliance and relies on a network effect to be useful. 2) Manual solutions are often best to start with It’s good business to be in business - transitioning from ideating to operating as early as possible is the BEST way to learn effectively. While the move fast and break things mindset has attracted well-deserved skepticism, getting stuck in a multi-year build trap distracted me from critical real-world validation. 3) Consumer appetite shifts quickly In my case, the proliferation of free and instant P2P payment options like Zelle added additional pricing pressure that I couldn’t compete with. This disincentivized the consumer event/payment collection market, turning my bottom-up go-to-market strategy upside down. Pitch (https://www.pitch.fun) is currently on the back burner as I’ve begun building custom solutions in various industries to sharpen my skills, solve specific problems, gain a hands-on understanding of operations, pain points, and workflows, and build a network of experts to lean on as I keep my eyes peeled for high-impact opportunities.

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I checked out the last three months of YC launches for companies that focus on sales and lead gen. A lot of new players popped up over the summer, and I’m sure there’s more cool stuff coming this fall. AnswerGrid – Think of it like a super simplified version of Clay with a ChatGPT-style interface. You can search for companies through a prompt and do research on them too. It's still in the early stages though. Mica AI – Turns your sales call with a lead or customer into a landing page. Just drop in a link to the recording (like from Fireflies) and it generates a page you can share with the client. They claim it boosts conversions and shortens the sales cycle. Flyflow (YC S24) – Another early-stage Clay competitor, but with the ability to create workflow diagrams. It seems like they’re using agents on the backend too. Trellus (YC W22) – A Hubspot and Apollo extension that lets you mass-call leads. Plus, it has an AI coach feature that summarizes a client’s profile before the call. Echo – Think of them as an automated agency that helps founders with sales. You do an interview with them, they create a sales playbook for you, and then you share your calls with them to get feedback and improve your performance. BlazeAI – A platform that combines a massive LinkedIn and X database (200M contacts), social media analytics, and message sequencing. You can even do ads on X and create lead gen forms. It also has an interesting "Segments" section, where they’ve pre-filtered different chunks of their database, like Web3 millionaires. There were three other companies that caught my attention, but they don’t really fall into the SalesTech category: Kaya – A marketing agency for startups. They don’t require a minimum budget, but you’ll need at least $3K to get started. They also offer a free proposal that includes research on your channels and keywords. Reworkd (YC S23) – A smart scraper. You give it websites and a prompt, and it spits out structured data. Wordware (YC S24) – A platform for building GPT agents. The interface is super user-friendly, and they already have a bunch of pre-built options for lead gen and sales. No AI SDRs this time around, but there’s plenty of copilot-style tools. Looks like the belief in fully automating salespeople is fading. And for those who made it this far, here’s a bonus: 3,000 free credits on any paid plan at Clay if you sign up through my link in the comments.

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“If there is no clear owner, then it’s the PM that owns it.” I sat down with Esteban Contreras from #ProductState to discuss Product leadership, or Prioritization process at Productboard. We also dug into the concept of Extreme Ownership, which is a principle I firmly believe in. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eVN47mWn #productmanagement #productexcellence #ownership

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Product management in tech is going through an existential crisis. GTM - owned by someone else. Pricing - owned by someone else. Growth - owned by someone else. Packaging - owned by someone else. Product vision - given by someone else. Data crunching - owned by someone else. Product strategy - owned by someone else. Hypothesis testing - owned by someone else. Business modeling - owned by someone else. Research, discovery - owned by someone else. Voice of the customer - owned by someone else. Everything that's supposed to be product management in the past is been done by someone else. Last week I chatted with a CPO who said: "Product management won't exist anymore. I need General Managers who drive business results with the product. Someone who knows how to bring a product life and make it successful financially. PM as it is today doesn't work. PMs need to own the role of a GM." I answered: "What you describe is the Product Manager role that's been existing since the 1920s. Unfortunately in tech we're not living it the way the role was meant to be. So yes PMs need to become commercial again. But if you start calling them 'GM', they need the authority of a GM. Otherwise we end up in the 'CEO of the product without being a CEO' mess." 👉 She and many other product leaders I am talking is looking for an entrepreneurial role of a product manager who has the capability to direct the product end-to-end. And seeing that more and more roles and teams are formed that are taking care of the commercial duties that a PM would have prove her point. What happened: ❤️ Product Management was a commercial function. 💔 Got pulled too deep into technical delivery. 💔 This created a commercial vacuum. 💔 Which created roles and teams that took over Product Management's duties. 💔 Now that Product Management rightly wants to get back to its origins, the commercial seats are taken. That's one of the reasons why we have so many discussions about what PMs should do and what not. How to change it: A) PMs need to get "commercial savvy" (pun intended) again. B) Companies need to understand the role of PM and utilize their PMs better. PMs are not ticket monkeys responsible for delivery!!! C) ... what else? I don't know how to end this post so here's the pitch: "If you are a scale-up or SMB who wants your PMs to be more entrepreneurial, and need help with that -> ping me" ... ... and POST END 😅

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Focus on the customer, not the next round. ^ This is one of the biggest reasons we bootstrap. On the VC track, you naturally have to focus on the company’s next raise. Bootstrapping lets you focus on users first. There are pros and cons to both tracks. With external capital growth can rocket, but much of the focus is set externally. e.g. On things like: - Hiring (and the opposite if things don't look good) - Hitting board-driven revenue milestones - Building in the board's direction - Getting more customers fast - Increasing LTVs We’re bootstrapping Flagsmith and it's stable and sustainable, so we don't have an absolute mandate to hit an external revenue goal. Budget constraints are tough, but we can do things like: - Building what users actually want - Pivoting when people request things - Keeping pricing fair (upselling or hiking prices are grim) It feels good to build around what people want, rather than building around revenue goals.

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When does a product manager truly earn that coveted "Senior" title? Everyone wants that promotion, but do they deserve it? And how can you tell? A senior title isn't just about years of experience or following a rigid timeline. It's about consistently delivering at an exceptional level with very little hand-holding required. A true senior product manager can oversee large, complex product areas while tying their work back to the overarching vision and goals. They engage stakeholders masterfully, tell compelling stories, and clearly communicate how their efforts ladder up to leadership's objectives. You don't have to worry about giving them excessive direction - just point them in the right direction, and they run with it autonomously. Now in startup environments, high performers can usually reach senior roles faster than at established companies. Why? Because in startups, you ship products and features at lightning speed, allowing individuals to take on bigger responsibilities and prove themselves sooner. So it’s not just about years of experience, but what they actually delivered. Of course, if someone on your team has their eyes on that senior role, it's crucial to have an open dialogue. Understand their motivations and perspectives, which may differ based on previous work environments. For some industries like banking or consulting, people expect a promotion every two years - that’ show those companies operate. In the software world, the it’s different. Evaluate objectively: Are they truly operating at that senior level already? If so, strongly consider promoting them - a worthy investment in top talent. If not, provide clear guidance on the skills and autonomy they need to develop. You can also explore alternatives like a pay raise to recognize their contributions as they continue growing into a full senior role. Ultimately, titles are just labels. The real reward is empowering your team to expand their impact through increasing challenges that unlock their full potential. When you cultivate an environment of continuous growth, the titles - and success - will follow. What does earning a senior product role mean to you? Let me know in the comments below! 👇 Listen now: https://lnkd.in/ejtWrJKp Do you have a burning product-related question for me? Feel free to submit one here DearMelissa.com and you might find your question featured and answered in an upcoming episode. #ProductManagement #CareerGrowth #SeniorPM #StartupLife #Leadership

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