Andrew Young

Paraform just announced our seed round today! 🎉 So I'll also share how I joined Paraform a couple months ago. I was approached by a recruiter—on Paraform—about Paraform. Fongyen Lin and I had a great chat on a Friday in January about the company and the role, and I thought it was a great fit, both in terms of it being a talent-related company and it being an early operator role. I had a Zoom chat with John Kim and Jeffrey Li the following Tuesday, then came in for an onsite lunch on Thursday, where John and Jeff were awesome in how transparent they were about the company, its challenges, and the massive opportunity space. And I came away impressed by how mature the product was, as well as the humility about the mistakes that had been made. It took a couple weeks to work out a plan for parental leave, but glad things worked out, because it's been the most exciting and invigorating past 2 months cranking and building with John, Jeff, and Aparimeya Taneja (also hired through Paraform!), helping amazing startups hire and supporting some of the best recruiters in the business. There's so much more to come. If you're a startup hiring, let Paraform help you fill your hardest roles. If you're a recruiter, come see if Paraform can be your ticket to building your own agency or an additional income stream. It's time to change how talent finds its place.

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Hey LA Friends - I’m hosting the inaugural next play community event in LA! Who: A community of folks exploring their “next play” and amazing partners in J.P. Morgan & Wonder Ventures Where: Brentwood restaurant When: August 21 at 7 pm What: Dinner & hang For those that aren’t familiar, next play brings together top-notch founders, builders & operators exploring what comes next, whether that’s starting something new, joining a startup, tinkering with a few ideas, or still unsure. This is a really special community and I’m excited to bring Los Angeles and next play together. This is our first event and we have big plans moving forward, so please reach out if you’re interested in joining the community even if you can't make this dinner - we'll be hosting more events in the coming months. Application link below. JP Morgan has decades of global experience, a robust professional and venture capital network, and scalable treasury management solutions—which can make us the only bank you’ll ever need. Bottom line: J.P. Morgan has the capabilities to support your business throughout every stage of growth. Please reach out to Sophie Nazerian ([email protected]) and Alex Tonhazy ([email protected]) for more information. Wonder Ventures is a leading pre-seed VC located in Los Angeles. Wonder Ventures’ community is rooted in LA with the over 80 portfolio companies, 200 founders, and thousands of employees we support. In addition to this, more than 70 of LA’s top founders and tech executives have invested in Wonder Ventures. This talented group of people represent the best of SoCal tech and are a key part of our community, supporting the founders that we invest in. ⚡ Apply to join if you’re interested - https://tally.so/r/mKVgJV #nextplay #socal #tech #la

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life update + hiring announcement: if you haven't seen me around the past few months, it’s because i’ve been building Seekeasy with Erick Hachenburg, Bryan Hart - two serial founders with multiple successful exits and whom i had the privilege working with at google and Tenor (acquired by google) - and Andrew Greenstein, ceo of the developer agency for the initial tenor app. now, we’re reinventing the recommendations space with genai and we're starting with restaurant recs (think google maps x ig, demo here: https://lnkd.in/gJpGpS3A). building for consumer is hard, messy, and maybe kind of crazy with all the existing incumbents. but we believe how people discover places, products, and content is ripe for disruption especially with what genai unlocks today. so if you’re an engineer looking for your next challenge, come join us!!

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Thanks for the insightful conversation Lillian Chiu!

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An important part of our strategy coming to fruition.

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It's easy to overlook AI's environmental impact, but it is quite extensive. It feels like new articles appear every few months describing it as worse than originally thought. I'm super pumped to be working for a company that will measure this impact and find ways to leverage this technology in a more sustainable way. #sustainability #ai #scope3

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I redesigned Peloton Interactive's info page on Strive Score. It's a powerful feature, but it's useless if users don't understand it. Ying Ying Hu, Billy Kiely, Young Seo - would love to know what you think. (yes, that's my actual Strive Score from my workout this morning - shoutout Tunde Oyeneyin)

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Looking forward to talk about the basics of ARIA and discuss some common misunderstandings of this standard! Edit: Unfortunately, due to a family situation, I am unable to present in November and we are looking at rescheduling this in January 2025

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🚀 Product Manage Your Life Like You PM Your Products 🚀 Got inspired by Lenny's Newsletter's podcast where Lenny Rachitsky featured Deborah Liu. In that episode, she tackled why we should PM our career like how we PM our products. 💡 Lightbulb moment because I tend to PM most aspects of my life - including financials. 💰 Month-end is my time for retros: what went well and what could be improved? Key results this month:  🚗 47.5% reduction on Transportation & Gas expenses 🛍️ 63% reduction on Miscellaneous expenses (eat outs + random purchases) 🐾 $250 overbudget in pet expenses (my yorkie needs updated vaccination!) Do you PM your life or career too? #productmanagement #liferoadmap

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😏 💭 A Cynical Take: Looking for a job in tech? Use this comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs to build out your target companies/markets. Many of these companies you know and/or work(ed) at. . . 💡 Or use this list as confirmation that it might be time to diversify the job search to other industries. #tech #layoffs #sarcasm #jobsearch #techcrunch

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Two truths and a lie 🔮: 1) Our team is the perfect mix of every synonym of passionate, cerebral, and customer-led. 2) We’ve raised $25M from some of the best at General Catalyst and Forerunner. 3) Fay is not hiring and you shouldn’t consider applying. I love our team. Yet, still, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Citing the team as the reason a startup is doing well often sounds like a cop out answer (even if it’s true), but what isn’t talked about enough is how cool it is working with a team of people all hungrily chasing the same thing you’re chasing. For everyone at Fay, working here is a blessing. We’re blessed with the opportunity to sprint the marathon of building a company solving the food and nutrition crisis in America. ❤️ We’re not just allergic to average; we set the bar high and keep raising it. If you’re hungry to accelerate your career and want to improve & save lives while doing it, I entreat you: apply to Fay. Who I want sliding into my DMs 🫶: - Operations - Growth - Head of Finance - Payor Strategy - Provider Sales - Enterprise Sales - Corporate Development - Chief of Staff - Software Engineer - First iOS Engineer - Product Manager Come find out why we’re one of the fastest growing startups around and the best team to ever do it. I can’t wait for you to meet everyone. https://lnkd.in/eGb9qZj3

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👉 Building up a new podcast is *already* been an enlightening experience. Have had a chance to chat with some amazing folks, got some incredible feedback, and have a ton of ideas for how this series will proceed. I will say, the most exciting part of my recent podcast, "Building Products with Generative AI", is that there is a narrative that is building throughout each episode. I'm not going to reveal what that is just yet, but if you watch each episode, you'll start to notice a solid pattern!

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🌟 Defining Your Social Legacy: Lessons from Emily Chang's “The Spare Room” 📖 Good day, LinkedIn community! Big thanks to Jessica Gleeson for recommending Emily Chang's inspiring book, *The Spare Room*. It’s truly made me reflect on the kind of social legacy we’re building through our actions and decisions every day. 🌍✨ Here are five powerful insights from the book that resonated with me: 1. Social Legacy Concept: Emily Chang introduces the idea of a "Social Legacy," where your unique skills and passions intersect with the causes that move you. It’s about taking action against the injustices that stir your heart. ❤️ 2. Personal Stories: Chang shares heartfelt personal stories, including how she’s opened her spare room to 16 young people in need, providing refuge for those facing unimaginable challenges. Her actions are a testament to living out one’s Social Legacy in real, impactful ways. 🛏️ 3. Integrating Life and Work: The book emphasizes blending your social purpose with your professional life, making your impact part of your daily routine. This integration has not only enriched Chang’s life but also shaped her as a more authentic leader. 💼🤝 4. Practical Guidance: *The Spare Room* isn’t just about stories—it’s a guide to action. It offers practical exercises to help you identify your Social Legacy and take meaningful steps to live a more purpose-driven life. ✨📝 5. Leadership and Purpose: Chang highlights that defining and acting on your Social Legacy is a leadership imperative. It’s about creating a ripple effect, inspiring those around you, and fostering environments where social purpose thrives. 🌱👥 As someone working in technology and product creation, it made me think: How are we defining our social legacy? Are we striving to make a positive impact through our work, or are we finding ways to give back through personal connections and community engagement, just like Emily Chang? Let’s start a conversation—how are you making the world a better place through your work or personal actions? Drop your thoughts in the comments below! 💬👇 #SocialLegacy #Leadership #PurposeDriven #ImpactfulLiving #Innovation #TechForGood #Inspiration #EmilyChang #TheSpareRoom

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For our latest customer, we sat down with the team at Vanguard to find out how consolidating multiple tools into Figma is helping them to ship 50% faster than before. Link to the full story is in the comments below.

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Once in a while a product development book comes along that elevates your approach to building products that have "it". I’m thrilled to share that my uncle, Jawwad Farid, a seasoned serial entrepreneur, has just released his latest book, "Craft: Why Products Are Hard." Grab your copy today and join the conversation on what makes products hard but incredibly rewarding to build!

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After hearing the insights from Claire Vo, CPO at LaunchDarkly, I’m more energized than ever about the transformative potential AI brings to our craft. Claire hit on some of the current challenges we all know too well: • The intensive effort to carve out a winning strategy, • The time (and countless slides!) spent aligning cross-functional teams. But what’s exciting is how our roles are evolving and how AI is set to revolutionize our craft. The future product manager is so much more than responsible for strategy and product implementation — they’re empowered to work smarter, iterate faster, and create value on a whole new level across the product team. Here’s what I’m seeing as essential for future PMs to thrive: • Learn & Leverage: It’s time to automate the tedious through AI, so we can focus on the next 2 points • Networked & Commercially Minded: We need to build strong connections internally and externally, becoming champions for our products and aligning with Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success. • Add new skills to speed up the process: The evolving PM continuously learns and multiplies their impact by embracing skills that drive efficiency and keep the process agile. (Design, Marketing, etc) https://lnkd.in/gnv4qqcE I’m excited about what’s ahead! How are you preparing for the AI-powered evolution in Product Management? #ProductManagement #AI #Innovation #FutureofWork

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🚀 Introducing the Prometheus Project: One week, one project… repeat 🔁 Starting today, I’m diving into a bold experiment: one “built-in-public” project per week. Each week I’ll tackle an idea, build it out, and share what I’ve learned right here on LinkedIn—with deeper insights posted on my website (👉 https://lnkd.in/dHpNGaGh) . Some weeks, it’ll be a quick solution for a niche problem; others, the seed of a larger idea or business. But every single week, I’ll be pushing my limits to try out some new things. Why Prometheus? 🔥 Named for the mythic figure who brought fire to humanity, this project is about empowering others through actionable knowledge and innovation. With each post, I’ll break down the process, share strategies, and (hopefully!) spark inspiration for fellow creators, problem-solvers, and anyone curious about what’s possible when we push boundaries. Let’s Be Real… We’re all here with a purpose. Engagement builds connections, visibility, and yes, opportunities (*cough* I’m available to consult for your company! *cough*). For me, it’s as much about staying accountable and lighting a fire under my own butt as it is about sharing insights with anyone building, iterating, and learning along the way. Let’s make this a win-win-win. 🏆 🤝 Guiding Principles 🧭 1️⃣ Create value, and the rest will follow: Each project is about delivering something genuinely useful. I believe firmly in “show, don’t tell.” 2️⃣ 20-hour timebox: I’ll build as much as I can in a limited time each week, then share the progress and lessons learned—no secrets, no holding back, no worries if it’s not perfect. 3️⃣ Not every project is about *profit*, but… Some ideas are just fun, some might have a future, and sharing them widely helps reveal what’s worth pursuing long-term. Why put all my idea-eggs in one basket, right? By building and sharing a variety of small projects, I’m taking a shotgun approach—testing many ideas quickly rather than going all-in on just one entrepreneurial (ad)venture. What’s Next? Made it this far? I won’t leave you empty-handed! Here’s something to chew on until the first full project post next week: → First website post: https://lnkd.in/dH3Wh4wF → Project word cloud: Check out the attached image for the full set of planned project codenames. Which ones intrigue you? Any guesses on what they might be? Sound off below! #PrometheusProject #Innovation #ProcessImprovement #LetsBuildThis #ProfitMaybePlease

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If anyone is looking out for opportunities or if you know someone who is looking out, this is my single biggest advice: When I set out to find my next gig, even before I started the search, the first thing I did was reach out to three of my closest friends who are also in product space. I created a WhatsApp group called "Job Hunt" with them. They helped me with everything - reviewing my Resume, suggesting companies, finding references from their networks, helping me prepare for interviews, extending so many of their own resources from interview preparation. And most importantly, infusing me with necessary confidence for tough rounds, and helping me understand and stick to my core strengths. All of this, became my most critical support system during the process. I knew where my confidence was about 6 weeks ago. I know where it is today and what I have in hand. I converted most of the companies that I got an opportunity for. And I know that my friends played a huge part in helping me get there! So, it's this experience that made me realize that I needed to share this with the LinkedIn community as a sincere advice. Any of us, who is on the lookout for opportunities, do try to reach out to your friends or well wishers and see if they will be interested to help you out in forming those Whatsapp groups that are your foundation. Also to those friends who are NOT looking out - do offer this support to your friends who are looking out and help them. Trust me, it's a big difference. Worst case, everyone involved will have fun doing it with your friends and would surely have picked up something about the industry. Hunt like a team. Hunt in a pack. PS: Huge shout out to my friends. I can't thank you enough for the time spent and the innumerable calls, advices throughout. Abhishek Ruthvik Ribhu You kept me in the hunt!

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I'm looking for senior front-end engineers to build tools that enable healthcare providers to get paid fairly and quickly. https://lnkd.in/gXUzdCvJ At Anomaly we're solving one of the biggest problems in healthcare-- payments. We are on a mission to fix the broken payment system in healthcare. Despite billions of $ invested in EMRs, revenue cycle vendors, clearinghouses and insurance companies, the outcomes have only gotten worse for everyone (except...shockingly...insurance companies). Providers see 15%+ of all claims get denied and lose 3%-5% of net revenue due to fatal denials, millions of patients have care delayed and receive unnecessary bills, and we all end up paying for the $300+ billion in annual administrative waste that plays a big role in the double digit annual increases in insurance premiums. We are using healthcare expertise, modern ML techniques, and common sense to break through the crap and reinvent the way financial transactions work in healthcare. We are early in the process and have a lot of work ahead of us, but we have the best client partners, a big vision, backing from great investors, and an amazing team...if anyone can do it, we will. Please share and email me at [email protected] if you're interested

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