The product manager is possibly one of the grayest roles within a startup. However, as a company evolves and the team grows, a founder needs to identify certain roles. Of these positions, product management is possibly one of the hardest and most important tasks to fill.
Ken Norton, who recently quit his job as Product Director at Figma to consult aspiring PMs, believes it is easier to first define what they are not: the CEO of the product.
“Product managers need to recognize that there is a lot of janitorial work in product management,” he said. “It’s not fun or glamorous, and it certainly isn’t the CEO of the product. It’s just things that need to be done. “I wrote a guide on how and when to hire your first product manager that expands on some of these insights, including how focus can be the greatest feature that can be interviewed:
Hiring people remains one of the most difficult aspects of building a startup, and these early employees can determine the course, culture, and eventual success of the startup. Even during TC Sessions: Justice last week, Precursor’s Sydney Thomas explained how startups “have to make pretty final decisions about what kind of business to build into, pretty early.”
It’s a little asterisk in the general narrative of how startups pan every other day. It’s not that simple, and I will probably remind you every other week, dear Startups Weekly readers.
The remainder of today’s newsletter will contain notes on an upcoming edtech IPO, an exit with Jay-Z, and the latest in agricultural tech robots. Also, remember that you can always find me on Twitter @nmasc_ or email me at [email protected].
The public markets are formed
It was another busy week for the public markets. I released a report earlier this week that Coursera will soon be making public. This would be one of the first debuts where we’ll see an education company’s finances change and accelerate amid the impact of the pandemic on distance learning.
Here’s what you should know: Like clockwork, Coursera’s S-1 fell late Friday and gave us a first look at the numbers behind the deal. The startup tried to picture a path to profitability, with increasing revenues and increasing net losses. We get into the flesh here.
Photo credit: Fotograzia / Getty Images
What’s better than a billionaire? Two
One of the biggest headlines last week was Square’s purchase of a controlling stake in Tidal. A collaboration between fintech and music might not seem so obvious, but the music industry remains one of the least used (and least innovated) opportunities left.
Here’s what you should know: Square CEO Jack Dorsey used his other company, Twitter, to share more information about the $ 297 million deal. As part of the deal, Tidal owner Jay-Z received a seat on Square’s board of directors, sparking talks about the future of musical NFTs. The deal also officially confirmed that Jay-Z isn’t just a businessman, he’s a business man.
Singer Jay-Z performs before President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign rally in Columbus, Ohio on November 5, 2012. After an exhausting 18 months of fighting, the final day of the US election day came on Monday for Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney, two men on a collision course for the world’s best job. The candidates have participated in hundreds of rallies, fundraisers and town halls, spent literally billions on attack ads, ground games and voting efforts, and argued in three intense debates. AFP PHOTO / Jewel Samad (Photo credit should be JEWEL SAMAD / AFP / Getty Images)
Someone who does decentralized insect breeding?
In this week’s Equity Wednesday episode, we got Jonathan Shieber, TC’s Climate Tech editor, to talk about what agtech can do right now. In the 20-minute episode, we covered a lot: from $ 100 million for mealworms, farm-to-grill robots, and decentralized insect breeding.
Here’s what you should know: Farms have always had a compelling reason to turn to robotics to make tedious jobs much, much easier. We looked at two different companies and their approaches to operating farm robots, from SaaS leases to selling the robots one at a time.
Credit: Fernando Trabanco Photography / Getty Images
All about TechCrunch
Thank you to everyone who chose TC Sessions: Justice over the past week. So much fun hanging out – and giving virtual praise to my colleague and showrunner Megan Rose Dickey.
Next up is TechCrunch Early Stage, our annual event dedicated to tactical advice to help new and first-time founders navigate the Wild West world made up of venture capital and startups. We just announced the pitch-off competition judging panel and we’ve already landed top venture capitalists to share what you can’t find on Twitter: behind-the-scenes advice for startups spanning 180+ characters.
It’s the boot camp you’ve always wished you could attend. So get your tickets here.
In the course of the week
Seen on Extra Crunch
Understand how investors estimate growth in 2021
Dear Sophie, can you demystify the H-1B process and E-3 premium processing?
11 Words and Phrases to Cut Out of Your VC Pitch Deck
Makes sense for the $ 6.5 billion Okta Auth0 deal
Seen on TechCrunch
SoftBank turns human laziness into mountains of money
Mary Meeker’s Bond has closed its second fund for $ 2 billion
The tech sell-off is getting a little more material
What China’s Big Tech CEOs Propose at Annual Parliament Session
And finally …
Finally, I wanted to use this platform to address the rise in anti-Asian violence in our country. Conversations about how to be a more inclusive and anti-racist society need to be louder and more cooperative for change to actually happen. The inclusion intent will impact the world we live in, the startups we create, and the success of our collective. Here are some resources for donating, peting, and learning.
Many Thanks,
N.