Hey Product fans!

Welcome to this week’s 🌮 Product Tapas.

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What’s cooking? 🧑‍🍳

📰 Not Boring – What a week. Somewhat intense. On the product front, OpenAI unveiled new features to shake up search and Apple doubled down on AI for the holidays. Meanwhile, Netflix and Google face some turbulence, and ICYMI (😂) there was an election…. but with it comes big implications for AI and crypto.

⌚ Time-Saving Tools & GPTs – We’re spotlighting a tool which lets you chat through long documents like a pro, and another promising Miro alternative for visual collaboration with built-in analysis features and more!

🍔 Blog Bites – In this week’s must-reads for product teams, we cover the power of staying nimble in “Founder Mode” for growth teams, how context shapes leadership, and the benefits of high-output generalists on lean teams.

🎙️ Pod Shots – We wrap up with a summary of Plaid’s Zach Perret’s 20VC podcast. It’s another banger, covering the dangers of “Founder Mode” (so joined up this week…!), managing rapid growth, and the art of balancing speed with accuracy.

Plenty to get stuck into - off we go! 🚀

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This is the first of two (slightly counter) pieces on the ‘beloved’ Founder Mode in today’s newsletter. In their recent article Growth Teams Should Stay in Founder Mode, Elena Verna and Yue Zhao explore the unique mindset growth teams need to thrive in today's fast-evolving markets. Drawing from "Founder Mode"—a hands-on, high-urgency approach—Elena and Yue argue that growth teams need to stay nimble and innovative to keep driving results.

Check out this week’s Pod Shot for some counter takes on Founder Mode.

In his thought-provoking article How Your Context Changes Your Life, Zan Tafakari explores the power of the environment in shaping our identities, decisions, and well-being. Using the story of renowned choreographer Gillian Lynne as a lens, Tafakari argues that personal growth is deeply influenced by the context around us—not just our thoughts alone. By daring to change our surroundings and engage our bodies, Tafakari suggests we can unlock new perspectives and paths in life.

Quite a refreshing/different take but worth a read. Full article here.

Greg and Taylor of the “Personal Math” blog delve into the essential role of high-output generalists—those versatile, adaptable team members who can propel projects forward quickly, regardless of changing conditions or limited resources. They explore what makes these high-output generalists invaluable for lean teams and break down the core skills and traits they exhibit. From working swiftly and independently to staying calm under pressure, these individuals provide the momentum that every growing company needs.

I’m definitely a fan of generalists, so this resonated. But then I think I’m biased as I fall into this camp. Read on into Zach Perret’s Pod Shot below for another countertake.

Remember, subscribers get access to an ever growing database of all the top Podcast summaries we’ve ever created. Check it out below 👇

Zach Perret, CEO and Co-Founder of Plaid—a platform revolutionising financial services—has raised over $734M from top investors like NEA, Spark, and a16z. With Plaid now serving thousands of companies, from Fortune 500 firms to the world’s biggest banks, Zach has learned firsthand the challenges of scaling a tech giant. In his recent 20VC podcast, he shared candid insights on why Paul Graham’s recent "founder mode" post can be dangerous, why grinding through tough problems can set you apart, and how deliberate decision-making has been key to Plaid’s growth.

🎥Watch the full episode here

📆 Published: October 16th, 2024

Zach cautions against blindly following popular advice like ‘founder mode’ without considering how it fits your specific company. He cites Paul Graham’s blog post as an example of advice that could lead to harmful practices, like undervaluing experienced executives or encouraging founders to micromanage. Zach argues that while founders should stay close to the details, they must resist the temptation to get involved in every small decision.

Takeaways

Zach shares a hard-won lesson from Plaid’s rapid expansion phase: trying to launch multiple products at once creates complexity and strains resources. In his words, it was like “a snake digesting an elephant.” By launching three new product lines simultaneously, Plaid faced overwhelming challenges in sales, branding, and support. The problem wasn’t just adding more products—it was about balancing the focus and attention each product needed to thrive.

Takeaways

Plaid’s approach to managing new ideas begins with “atomic teams”—lean, self-sufficient groups of key personnel that can test product ideas quickly and with minimal overhead. An atomic team is typically a small cross-functional group with a product manager, engineers, and sometimes a designer or data scientist, tasked with finding out if there’s something viable in a concept before further resources are committed. This lowers risk and gives each idea room to develop without getting crushed by company-wide expectations.

Takeaways

Zach is a big believer in tackling “grinder problems”—the tough, repetitive tasks that most others would avoid. At Plaid, integrating with thousands of banks in the early days wasn’t glamorous, but it gave the company a defensible edge. These “grinder” challenges create unique advantages because few competitors have the patience or persistence to solve them.

Hiring at Plaid, Zach opts for a “hire for spikes” philosophy—looking for candidates with exceptional strengths in specific areas, even if they have weaknesses elsewhere. This creates teams of specialists who bring unique, high-impact skills, which he finds more effective than building a team of generalists. He values unusual perspectives and diverse backgrounds, which he believes add to the company’s creativity and problem-solving ability.

Perret also shared how his thinking on hiring experienced professionals has evolved:

"There's this thing internally called the experience trap, where we basically thought that anyone that had been doing a certain thing for more than 15 or 20 years wasn't a fit for Plaid, because we just had this bad assumption that people that had been doing a thing for that long weren't gonna hustle."

He now recognises the value of experience, especially in specialised fields, while still maintaining a balance:

"We're in financial services. We want a 70-30 split. 70% of people on our team should not have come from financial services. 30% should have."

Takeaways

Perret emphasised the importance of questioning popular advice and finding what works for your specific situation, giving examples of commonly accepted practices that may not be universally applicable e.g.:

Takeaways

When asked if speed is the most important factor for companies going from 0 to 1, Perret offered a nuanced perspective:

"No. Being right is. And then speed."

He elaborated:

"Once you've found product-market fit, yeah, move fast. That's absolutely the right thing to do. Before you have product-market fit, sure, maybe you should move quickly through ideas, but also spending the time to think about what the right thing is, gathering the signals, gathering the data, understanding what you need to do. Be right, and then move fast."

Key takeaways on speed and strategy:

Zach has a unique take on fundraising, rejecting the “always be raising” mindset common in Silicon Valley. Plaid raises capital only when it’s essential, often going years between funding rounds. He believes fundraising should be seen as a tool to enable growth, not as a recurring milestone. By focusing on sustainable growth, Plaid has been able to maintain flexibility and avoid the pressure to meet investors’ short-term expectations.

While some founders interpret “staying close to the details” as a license to micromanage, Zach cautions against over-involvement. Effective delegation, he counsels, is about knowing when to stay hands-on and when to trust the team. He points out that while founders should stay close to critical areas that impact the company's direction, they shouldn’t be in the weeds of every decision. Misinterpreting this balance can lead to burnout, slow down innovation, and disempower teams.

As a leader, Zach recognises the importance of celebrating progress, even if the team hasn’t yet reached its final goal. Early in Plaid’s journey, he found that celebrating small wins along the way was essential for maintaining team morale. He compares it to running a marathon: celebrating each completed mile gives everyone the boost they need to keep going.

Zach shares how Plaid allowed team members to participate in secondaries (sale of existing shares by investors, employees, or founders to the public or institutional investors) after a near-sale to Visa that didn’t go through. This liquidity option helped employees feel secure and validated in their work, especially after a rollercoaster period of high expectations. He believes that secondary offerings, while challenging to manage, can create alignment and security for employees, especially during growth phases.

Zach believes in the rigour and visibility that comes with being a public company but emphasises the importance of timing. Plaid has long-term goals to go public, but he’s in no rush, choosing instead to wait for the right market conditions. Going public, should be a tool for the business, not simply a milestone to check off.

Zach’s insights highlight one absolutely critical lesson: there’s no one-size-fits-all approach for founders. From avoiding ‘founder mode’ to the balance of product expansion and hiring for spikes, each of his strategies emphasises intentionality and adaptation to unique business needs. For founders and product managers, Zach’s reflections underscore the importance of forging your own path, even if that means breaking from conventional advice.

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That’s a wrap.

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Alastair 🍽️.