Gaurav Agarwal

Me in 2019: “Hiring top product talent is hard” Me in 2024: “Keeping top talent is even harder” After five years of leading PMs, I can say that mastering managing high-performers yields the highest ROI. Nevertheless, taking high performers for granted will shutter your ‘house of cards’ in no time. In this post, I will dive into the ‘Promotion’ topic; the ‘Sacred cow’ leaders consciously try to keep vague. 1️⃣ 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐝. - Promotion is the ultimate recognition (financial, social, and brand). - Misalignment around promotion can kill performance. - Dangling the promotion carrot quarter after quarter will break trust. 2️⃣ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫’𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬. - You hire top talent ( = High Performance) to do job X - Ensure the talent does job X for a long time ( = Duration) - Formula: (High Performance) X (Duration) = (Company Success). - Promotion means they no longer do job X. 3️⃣ 𝐑𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠-𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬. - Reward performance peaks (take care of your team). - Promote a long-term performance upward trend. - Invest in building your team members’ long-term defensible careers. 4️⃣ 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐠𝐚𝐩. - Communicate promotion criteria early, starting with interviews. - Hire only those happy to do job X for at least three years. - Never use empty promotion promises as a hiring tactic. 🟢 Wrapping up with a few 𝐛𝐨𝐧𝐮𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐌𝐬: 1. Ensuring that your work materializes in building a successful company has a higher long-term impact than a premature promotion. 2. The statement ‘Join at level Y and you will get promoted in no time’ indicates a questionable/toxic culture. Don’t take the job. 3. And a counter-argument: As a PM, avoid taking a role you are uncomfortable doing for at least three years. *** What do you love/hate about my ‘promotion’ philosophy? Share in the comments. 👉 P.S. The link to the full write-up is in the comments. #productmanagement #productleadership #productmanagers #product #promotion #leadingdown

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#Germany's Funded Startups Directory. You can view the list of startups funded in #Germany whenever you need it. Access the directory here https://lnkd.in/dc9emGbb #startup #startups #vc #venturecapital #investmentbanking #privateequity #managementconsulting #b2b #founders #entrepreneurs

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Becoming multi-product much earlier than a typical SaaS company was the hardest and most controversial decisions I have made as a founder CEO Had an amazing chat with Alexander Theuma on #SaaSRevolutionShow where we chatted about the conundrums of going multi-product, and ➡ unilateral decision making as a CEO 🙈 ➡ crucial differences in GTM approaches for tech industry vs non-tech ➡ how we thrived on the roller coaster our industry was in early days Have always been a big fan of the SaaStock community and what they do for our world of SaaS. Do check the pod out in comments!

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These topics came up on coaching calls with founders in the last few weeks: I've never prospected before, don't know how to do outreach. Not sure how to position - feel like UI and ease of use are not great differentiators. But not sure how to get more specific. Taking too long explaining the problems we solve. I don't have a good story. My demo takes 27 minutes then I leave the call not knowing where to go next. I have to follow-up and chase. I don't feel comfortable with discovery yet. I'm not working enough deals to practice discovery questions. I'm running out of time on my intro call. Prospects expect a demo, but I can't do discovery and a demo in 30 minutes. Not sure how many prospects I should reach out to every day. These are all common problems, thoughts, and topics that founders have when they're building their first sales process. It's hard. Even seasoned sales professionals have these thoughts. And often, founders are doing this alone. Either as a solo founder, or as the only co-founder focused on sales. It can be lonely. When times are rough, you can often get down. But know that sales is a skill that can be learned. And a basic sales process will help you. This is why I started SalesMVP Lab - to help early-stage founders learn founder-led sales. I've put blueprints together for: Minimum viable discovery framework Minimum viable positioning Minimum viable sales story Minimum viable demo Minimum viable call/meeting structure Minimum viable sales process. I created a course, community, and coaching membership to help guide you through your sales process. We're seeing great results with founders from Savio Technology Inc, Sitebulb, Revve, Currents, Revise, SweptAI, and many more. Free 7-day trial for the course + community (includes office hours and webinars, with tons of resources and feedback channels). With options to upgrade to group coaching, 1:1 founder-led coaching, and scale coaching as your MRR grows. Reach out for help. P.S. If you're a program manager at a VC/angel fund/seed fund/accelerator, reach out for special pricing for your founders. I've done special pricing for TinySeed and YC.

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List of Startups Receiving Funding in #Germany. Check out the list of #Germany-funded startups available for your reference at any time. View the list now https://lnkd.in/dc9emGbb #startup #startups #vc #venturecapital #investmentbanking #privateequity #managementconsulting #b2b #founders #entrepreneurs

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🪧Zvonimir’s first company, AWW app - A Web Whiteboard, went head-to-head with Miro, hit 100k MAUs, and was ultimately acquired by Miro 🏎️💨Pythagora (YC W24) dropped an open-source devtool that builds apps from scratch just by chatting with you and hit 30k GitHub stars at lightning speed 🎓In this video, he’ll tell you about his learnings with AWW and what’s different for a second time founder🎥 👣Here’s some counterintuitive startup advice: Don’t get pulled into industries just because your customers are asking you to. Choose your own path 😵‍💫Are you thinking of getting a few customers just to learn and perfect your product? Don’t. Instead, aim to get more customers than you can handle!

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Looking for advice to handle tough times? 🚀  📕𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘼𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙃𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 by Ben Horowitz isn't your typical business book—it's a raw, no-nonsense guide to surviving the toughest moments in entrepreneurship, leadership and business. Whether you're making gut-wrenching decisions or leading through crises, this book gives you the playbook for the problems no one else talks about. As a professional navigating today's business landscape, this book has been invaluable to me. #BusinessLeadership #EntrepreneurshipChallenges

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This is how I feel when I test most new products. Getting the first experience is critical. It only happens when you: → Understand the customer problem deeply → Deliver meaningful value immediately → Solve simply & remove complexity → Have a strong return hook Please don't think about scaling before you get this right.

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Let’s dig into the kinds of questions I like to ask startup CEOs during interviews. They fall into three categories: 1) situational context; 2) existential company risks; and 3) culture fit. 1. Situational context: These are questions that help me get a lay of the land, to get a sense for what we’re working with, and to help me sniff out what questions from the next two categories are worth asking. - How big is the team? In total, Product only, Engineering only? I’m trying to get a sense for PM:Eng ratio* and if the build org is big enough, relative to company size and company needs.* - Who is on the exec team? This tells me who has influence and hints at company culture. - Why hire a CPO now? Why not a Director-level head of product or keep doing it yourself? - What’s the next big company milestone? What’s the most important problem to solve in order to get there? This tells us a lot.* 2. Existential company risks: These are questions that tell me how safe I should feel, and for how long. - What’s our runway? Does that runway assume we hit our financial projections? What would our runway be at today’s revenue level? - Do we have PMF? What makes you believe that is true? - (If more funding will be needed) What will it take to get our next fundraise? What do we believe must become true for that to happen?* 3. Culture fit: These are questions that help me gauge if I’ll be happy there. - When the answer isn’t obvious, how do you and the exec team make decisions? - What was a time when you thought you were right but it turned out you were wrong? - How does the company do quarterly planning?* - If you had the best product team in the world, how often would their product launches be successful?* Obviously, there isn’t time to ask all of these questions. Pick the ones that seem most critical to uncover. The rest you may be able to get out of your other interviewers, or ask for a follow up call if things are going well. —————— *If you’re interested in reading the footnotes as well as my work-in-progress thoughts (today: are media companies hastening their demise?), sign up for my free newsletter: https://lnkd.in/g44P3_rB

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How did InvisionApp with a $1.9 billion valuation fail so badly? The short answer: - Lack of product focus - Marketing over innovation - Feature release stagnation - Declining customer trust - Missing innovation in the design space They could have easily prevented all of this! They had the talent. They had the money. They had the insight in the design industry. I covered this all in yesterday's newsletter issue. You can read it here: https://lnkd.in/dPU_kYF5

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On speed of execution: Last week one of our customers had asked for usage analytics. Analytics were shipped before the week ended. End-to-end, full-stack. We also made analytics available through our API. A classic startup advice is to move fast and break things. This phrase is used so often that before Reform, I took it for granted. It just seemed like a best practice, but I never really questioned why it is so important. After spending the last year talking to customers, here’s my answer to that question: you can think of a startup as a video game, and what you’re really trying to do is level up. As you level up, you uncover a set of truths that were previously unknown to you; you get to learn more about your customers, your industry, how to build a business, how to sell, etc. You simply just become better at the game. You certainly are a worse Super Mario player at level 1 than you are at level 10, and your friend is certainly a better Super Mario player at level 20 than you are at level 10. If you’re moving slow, your rate of improvement is slow, and the next level just gets harder and further. What you’re really doing when you move fast is shortening your iteration cycle, accelerating your rate of improvement, helping you arrive at the truth faster. As you uncover more truths, your chances of success simply compound. A startup with a compound interest of 1% can never compete with another that has a compound interest of 5%. Happy building my friends 😊 https://lnkd.in/evFq4sJQ

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We need to start re-thinking the idea of no-code. It's a naming convention built by those who can code. When the car was built, it wasn't named no-horse. Whop represents the car in the innovation evolution. Maybe no-code should just be redefined as Whop.

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How often do you receive a (meaningful, useful) performance review? If you work at a startup, the answer is probably "not often enough." And if you work at a big company, you might still not be satisfied. For better or worse, performance reviews are one of the best ways to ensure your efforts are aligned with those of the larger organization. But too often, they're perfunctory where they should be thoughtful, abstract where they should be concrete, and detached from your actual role. I'm working on something I call "minimum viable perf," and I'd love to hear your hopes, dreams, criticisms, thoughts, and suggestions. What do you *wish* for from your perf? Let me know below, or shoot me a DM.

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How to bounce back stronger? Today, Moritz asks: — “How can I get better at bouncing back from tough times?” — Welcome to Episode 94 of AskMatty! Here’s my answer, Moritz: — “Tough times” are subjective, but one skill we all need is resilience. Are you with me? Super! Let’s see how to cultivate resilience through the 7 Cs. So you can bounce back stronger! 1.    Competence The more skills we have, the easier it gets to face life’s challenges. So what can we do? Just keep learning and improving — in YOUR own way! So you’re ready to face tough situations. My way, for example, is “learning by doing.” I’m not a theory guy. 2.    Confidence When we’re confident, we face challenges head-on. We also see challenges as opportunities to grow. And this is not a catchphrase — it’s reality. Confidence builds self-trust. And that trust will help you overcome difficulties. 3.    Connection Our mood significantly influences how we face challenges. That mood is influenced by the people around us too. That’s why we need to build close connections with loved ones. A deep sense of belonging can really help in tough times. 4.    Character Why is it important to know what’s important to you? Because knowing and sticking to your values gives you stability. And that stability is key during tough times. 5.    Coping Why am I so in love with exercise and other wellbeing tools? Not just because I was an athlete and personal trainer. But because they help us manage our emotions and stay balanced. And that balance is essential during difficult moments. 6.    Control This is something I learned through sports: →    Focus on what you can control! →    Accept what you can’t! That “focus + radical acceptance” is key during tough times. 7.    Contribution Having a strong purpose is not different from having strong values. When we have a purpose that goes beyond ourselves, we adopt a new perspective. That “perspective” makes tough periods more manageable. That’s it. This is how we can build resilience through the 7 Cs. — Alright! Thanks for your question, Moritz. Question of the day for all of you: →    What’s your favorite ‘C’? Let me know in the comments :) “Let’s build a more inclusive world by spreading wellbeing globally!” – Matty 

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𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 & 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬: 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝? In the last few weeks, I’ve noticed a growing disconnect between what management and founders of Series B (and beyond) companies want, and what their teams are asking for. Hear me out. 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 is focused on performance—cutting unnecessary resources, speeding things up, and doing whatever it takes to "save the company." Why? Because they see the bigger picture: industry shifts, investment uncertainty, and the lingering post-COVID shakiness. On the other hand, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲𝐞𝐞𝐬 are prioritizing culture. They want diversity, learning opportunities, flexibility, and hybrid work options. But now, with learning budgets slashed, culture work put on hold, and mandates to return to the office, there’s tension. You can view this situation from multiple angles, but the one I’m choosing is: how can we marry the two? How do we ensure the company keeps moving forward without losing its people? How do we cut costs smartly, while still fostering open conversations about the trade-offs? I don’t have all the answers—just a coaching question. And an invitation to explore it with me. 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐚𝐦𝐞? Or do you know anyone already mastering this balance? Ps: Here’s my secret—I keep a stash of french fries at home. My husband doesn’t know, don't tell him:) But to me, it’s a “healthy” break from always striving to be healthy. Sometimes, we all need a little pause. and may be this is where both management and employees can find common ground - by giving each other a break.

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Not long after joining a promising tech start-up, one where I would have to raise money in order to get paid, I joined two of the founders on a trip to Silicon Valley. One of the founders wanted to pitch his idea to the Board of Directors of a colleague’s company. Now, at this point, I wasn’t officially on board yet. It’s not easy to commit to a company that cannot pay you. I watched as the founder started to pull back the curtains on the details of the intellectual property (IP) during his presentation. I was torn between embarrassing him and not overstepping. I was very worried. Now, in fairness, this other company was in an entirely different business. And they were well-funded with their current business model. And the CEO was a friend of the founder. But I couldn’t help but be concerned that over-sharing might be a problem. My instincts were right. That company ended up being a flat-out competitor. The CEO tried to do an end-run around me and approached the founders directly to acquire the rights to our IP. I squashed that effort. I’ve over-shared at times, too. Mine was never about IP, but the lesson is the same. We all want to connect. But it’s also important to recognize who our audience is and when it's a good idea to share, and when its better to just keep it under wraps. By the way, our company was successful…and the other one, despite raising tens of millions, eventually crashed and burned. We still owned the IP. #leadership #entrepreneurship #communication #intellectualproperty

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