Kevin Lau

The newest issue of The Pragmatic Engineer found a surprise uptick in eng hiring in the typically slow summer season - I'm curious to see how the macro environment impacts this uptick as we head into the fall, but I remain hopeful. I asked Gemini to give me the tldr of the article to share with my team (sorry, Gergely Orosz) and found it missed one of the most interesting pieces of the article. Gemini's highlights - Unexpected surge: Tech recruitment has seen an unusual spike in June and July, contrary to typical trends. Increased demand: Startups, especially AI-focused ones, are driving the hiring uptick. Global phenomenon: This trend isn't just limited to the US; Europe is also experiencing increased recruitment activity. Reasons for hiring: Companies are backfilling positions, investing in growth due to improved financials, and responding to increased VC funding. Challenges remain: While the job market is improving, finding qualified candidates and offering competitive compensation remains difficult for many companies. What I found most interesting - The nature of the backfills: the article finds that a lot of new headcount are actually backfills of folks that were "over-slashed" during rounds of layoffs. Not entirely surprising with the "trim the fat" and "rebuild lean" mentality, but interesting nonetheless. Either way, the uptick is encouraging (and don't always rely on Gemini's tldrs). #hiring #startups #VCbacked #softwareengineering

11

1 Comment

Hi everyone! I don’t share too often on here, but we’re at a very exciting moment at AptDeco, and I wanted to let you all in on it. AptDeco opened a community investment round and the response has been incredible. We’ve raised over $2M so far from institutional investors, customers and supporters. Nothing is more validating than customers doubling down with their own capital. And now, I’m inviting you, my network, to be part of our journey. When we started AptDeco, we set out to make buying and selling furniture easier. Over the years, many of our competitors have come and gone, but AptDeco continues to thrive. Why? Our technology, logistics and branding continues to set us apart and that's why major retailers including West Elm, Pottery Barn, La-Z-Boy, Article and 30+ more have partnered with us. The beauty with this investment round is that anyone can be an investor. Learn more and invest directly at wefunder.com/AptDeco.

184

16 Comments

Absolutely energizing conversation with Christopher Nguyen - he's doing so much to help #designers turn into #entrepreneurs, and unlock true economic freedom. A few nuggets that stuck with me from our convo: - Early stage designers are focused on getting a job. Later stage designers realize they need to go independent. - Entrepreneurs think about all of their online activity as part of a single funnel. How do you get customers from one entrypoint into more and more of what you have to offer? - People follow you for your journey. They want to learn how you got there, so they can get there themselves. Can you offer them something that will help them get to where you are now?

26

1 Comment

So excited for Jiaona Zhang (JZ) to join us on Sauce's next AI for Product. "The best product leaders are chameleons. They lean into different functions to build the best product. They are able to wear different hats & act as a glue. They spot what needs work & go fill that hole." We'll unpack the spiciest 'AI for Product' Qs and what it's like to scale impactful products as CPO Linktree, SVP Product at Webflow and Head of Product at Airbnb. Got questions for JZ?

41

5 Comments

Founder <> founder convos are the biggest unlock for company building. I spent the last 2+ weeks in SF. Besides meeting with customers, I spent a ton of time with founders / early stage builders that I deeply respect (shoutout to Abhinav Asthana, Christina Cacioppo, Kevin Van Gundy, Akshay Kothari, Yuhki Yamashita, Tara Viswanathan, Celine Halioua, & Michelle Valentine). I’m extremely grateful to have the chance to spend time with these folks. Some reflections from these brilliant people. 1/ People > everything. A company is a collection of people. Company success comes down to hiring the best people. 2/ Startup problems aren’t *that* unique. Startups are HARD and even if you think your challenges are specific to your company, they’re likely not. Someone else has faced the same thing, and you likely don’t need to reinvent the wheel. 3/ Let some fires burn. Focus > trying to do everything. As a startup, you can’t fix everything at once with limited resources (even if you want to). You need to focus on the stuff that will move the needle the most. Pick the top 1 or 2 problems, fix them, then move onto the next. It’s okay if some fires need to burn for a little in the meantime. 4/ Company operating cadences are key. We’re redoing our cadences now, so it was super interesting to learn how others run their board meetings, leadership meetings, all hands, etc. A consistent theme for board & leadership meetings is to have everyone complete a prompt in written doc, share with each other, then use the time to have meatier discussions. 5/ Be competitor aware, customer obsessed. Competitors cause unnecessary noise. Build products and make decisions based on customer / market need and founder intuition, never based on competition. Are these learnings helpful? If so, can share more founder learning posts in the future!

104

17 Comments

🎉 Excited to share an update (and a confession)… Our shiny, brand-new StartupStage website was supposed to launch last Friday. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. 😅 Turns out, reengineering an entire platform takes a little more time than I planned. Luckily, we have rockstar talent like Li Zeng (award-winning UX/UI wizard 🧙‍♀️) creating a design that’s light-years better. And Ken Vermeille + his team are working tirelessly to make it a reality. 🙌 New launch date? Dec 1st. 🗓️ While we wait, let me share why I’m so pumped about StartupStage: 💡 Our mission: Scale startups from Launch to Legacy. We help founders with tools, community, and expert guidance to grow smarter and avoid the pitfalls that crush 90% of startups. We’re not a directory, agency, or constantcy. We’re founders helping founders. We’ve walked this road, felt the pain, and come out the other side—stronger, smarter, and ready to share what works. Want a sneak peek? Here’s what we offer: • Founders’ Circle: Private community, SaaS discounts, and 1-on-1 strategy sessions. • Smart Scale: CoFounder-on-Call, automation tools, and expert coaching. • Rapid Scale: Bespoke scaling strategies for businesses aiming for IPO or acquisition. True story: we recently saved a founder from a branding disaster that could’ve cost them their business. Sometimes, it’s not about what you do but what you avoid. That’s what StartupStage is all about. Dec 1 can’t come soon enough. Until then, message me if you’re a founder looking to scale—happy to chat and share insights. #StartupStage #ScalingStartups #FounderLife

1

Those who know me well, know that I typically like to stay behind the scenes—working with founders, speccing out products, iterating with engineers, etc. So this was a BIG step outside my comfort zone. Thank you Harry Stebbings for taking the time to dig into my 15+ years in product and how those learnings shape my role at Sequoia Capital and our work with founders. We covered a lot of ground, from the product philosophy we walk pre-seed and seed-stage founders through in Arc to the PMF framework we recently released. The experience wasn’t as panic-inducing as I thought it would be! While I’m out here, I wanted to mention one thing that I didn’t get to cover with Harry: the fact that my career arc as a product leader looks a bit different from most. I have been very intentional about staying an individual contributor and focusing on building products vs. building teams. To my fellow IC lifers out there, even if the path isn’t obvious, there’s always the option to make one. Don’t think leadership only means management. Special thank you to those who didn't just tolerate, but enabled the path I'm on: Jess Lee, Terry Angelos, Ashley Alexander, Vishal Shah, Ethan Lubka, Roelof Botha, Alfred Lin, and Pat Grady.

255

29 Comments

A year ago we (Simple Stack) formally joined the Airtable Partner ecosystem, our first opportunity came weeks later at 9pm Friday night working w/ Nelson Wang. We didn't win it, but it proved that we were committed, hungry and ready to mark in the partner ecosystem. Fast forward 12 months: we've hit Gold status and landed in the top 7% for Enterprise delivery. Pretty surreal considering we started this with nothing but our savings and a belief that teams needed a better way to manage their work. Each day brings a new puzzle to solve. One day we're helping a Fortune 50 marketing team scale their mktg/comms operations, the next we're building portals, CRM OR product launches for a startup. It's not just about building apps - it's about the real impact we're having on how PEOPLE, teams and departments work. That's the stuff that makes this meaningful. Quick numbers that honestly still surprise me when I look at them: 💎 70+ projects delivered 💎 102% quarter-over-quarter growth 💎 70+ projects from startups to Fortune 50 💎 4.9 CSAT 💎 Working with teams at Amazon, Johnson & Johnson, Autodesk, NASA/MIT, Cisco, LinkedIn, Airbnb, 1800 Got Junk, City of SF, Tory Burch, Crunchyroll, Clinton Foundation, etc Behind these metrics are the people who made it happen: 🙏 To our team of 8 - Thanks for rolling with the natural ebb and flow of project demands, and finding that balance between work and life. Appreciate you living our values of growth and customer-first everyday. 🙏 To my co-founder Andrew Dodds- thanks for being equally committed to experimenting, failing fast, and figuring it out together. 🙏 To our partners at Airtable - Nelson Wang, Kim Troy, and Kara Blumberg - your support and partnership since day one has been crucial to our success. 🙏 To our customers - your trust and referrals built this business. Simple as that. 🙏To our families - thanks for backing this vision when we decided to take the leap. 🙏 Scott Suiter and Suiter&Company for an incredible design system, brand identity 🙏To our advisors, official and unofficial - especially Garry Polmateer, Laura G, Tom Flynn whose guidance in building a stable, scalable business has been invaluable. Thanks for sharing the ongoing advice/mentorship from those who've been there before. 🙏 Lastly to the LCNC #lowcodenocode community Here's to what's next. #airtable #lowcodenocode #workmanagement #enterprisesoftware #toolconsolidation #startup #agency #simplestack Mariusz Spychala Holly Portier Russell Davis Holly Nilson-Clay Caroline Kaeke Kat Killion

202

38 Comments

Chat with Miles Clements about building Linear For me companies are like design problems: you have context, constraints & goals unique to you. Then you look for a solution that has a good fit to your unique problems. The company problem also evolve over times the solution Directly applying what others have done doesn’t work that well, yet there is lot emphasis on playbooks, pattern matching and playing copying what other companies are doing in industry. https://lnkd.in/ghxjJwYU

84

今回のnote記事も引き続き、９月末にY Combinator Summer 2024（YC S24） Batchに採択されたスタートアップ紹介しています。今回の記事では、医療教育の効率化、保険請求業務の自動化など、AIを活用した革新的な医療ソリューションを提供するSoma Lab, Vera Health, Guardian AI, Taxo, Tivaraの5社を取り上げました。 ぜひご一読ください！(Check out the article, YC S24 Healthcare-3) https://lnkd.in/gqps2PhX *Although the article is in Japanese, please feel free to contact me in English if you are interested in the content. In Y Combinator’s S24 Batch, several startups have emerged under the Healthcare category. This article spotlights five innovative companies—Soma Lab, Vera Health, Guardian AI, Taxo, and Tivara—that utilize AI to enhance medical education, streamline insurance claims, and more. 

10

1 Comment

I've returned to writing and sharing my insights, now on Substack! 📚✨ If you're interested in product development and compelling startup stories, be sure to check out my new Substack. The upside? It's going to be very opinionated and inspiring. The downside? It might push your thinking. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/dZnUgJj5 Stay tuned and feel free to subscribe. #Tech #ProductDevelopment #TechTrends #StartupStories #Substack

41

Just enrolled in my first Reforge course and very excited about it ✍️ "Generative AI Products: How to Get from Idea to MVP" led by Rupa Chaturvedi and Polly M Allen I'm stoked to engage in more structured AI product learning, as a way to supplement the product work I've been doing to support early-stage AI companies and use-cases. Curious to hear from other product folks out there -- what're your favorite AI resources for PMs? (and for anyone that's curious, course link in the comments)

22

10 Comments

🚀 "𝗔 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻." Early in his product management career, Ken Norton learned a hard truth: what the team sees as a feature, the user might see as a bug. Ken’s Team at Google were excited about delivering new features for google doc — a revamped interface, advanced customization options, and more. But when they spoke to their users, their message was clear: "𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁." It was a wake-up call. As product managers, we often focus on innovation and differentiation, but none of it matters if the core experience doesn’t work. Users won’t notice the bells and whistles when their basic needs aren’t met. Here’s what I learned: 1️⃣ 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝗰𝘁. Users don’t just want to be heard—they want their pain points solved. 2️⃣ 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝗴𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀. Fix what’s broken before adding something new. 3️⃣ 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗹𝘆. Not everything is equally important, even if it looks that way on paper. They first fixed the issues, and only then moved to the exciting stuff. The result? A better experience, happier users, and stronger growth. Google Docs has higher active monthly users compared to Microsoft Word now. 💡 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁; 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀. To my fellow PMs, what’s one lesson that changed the way you think about prioritization? Let’s discuss in the comments! Product Space Akhil Yash Tiwari Subhasis Chandra Ashu Mishra #productmanagement

20

1 Comment

One of the things that worries me the most about 2021-era AI startups is precisely this: early-stage burn rate. Burn rate applies not only to dollar amounts but equity as well. Raises ultimately have to tie to revenue at the very least, so even if the first stage VC went starry-eyed, it doesn't mean the second stage will. I suppose it's just the Great Filter of AI, but here's to the prudent leaders!

5

Miro's acquisition of Uizard by Miro Labs also brings an end to my time in the design tool space. Honestly when Ryan Burke hired me at InVision, I never thought I would be in this space for 7 years. I’ve been really fortunate with the talented people I have worked with and the companies I have collaborated with. With over 1000 hours of conversations with products teams at the worlds biggest companies around the globe, I wanted to end my time with some thoughts about the state of the UI design tools for Enterprise companies: - Figma finally launched AI features this year at Config 2024. Honestly I have mixed feelings about what they demonstrated. On one hand it was flattering to see they had been inspired by the work we had done at Uizard over the past 6 years but with the hype I heard from Figma fans about them releasing AI features, I was underwhelmed with what they announced. I would rate their launch a 4/10. - What is clear, they are trying to move away from being perceived as a design tool for designers and moving towards being a design tool for everyone. They launched UI3 to make their tool less complex and are set to slowly roll out further changes but they risk turning their back on the group that made them, designers. - Last year was the first time in 6 years I have heard discontent from designers about Figma. Complaints on being forced to pay extra for developer seats even though developers wont be using their solution. They stopped following a large number of designers on X, the same designers that have been singing their praises for years. They made the billing system complex resulting in companies being caught out by large bills they had not anticipated or budgeted for. A lot of companies I spoke with had tight restrictions on who could own a Figma license because of the cost involved per a single licence. Basically Figma's message to the group that made them was “We are your workflow, we can do what we want and you will pay”. - However with thousands of companies design systems in Figma, they are best placed to deliver what a lot of design teams around the globe want which is generating user interfaces from their design systems. There are a few companies trying to address this such as my good friend Clyde at Semanttic, a company that if it delivers is primed for an acquisition. - In my opinion the real winner when it comes to non-designers will be the company that can use AI to help product teams that don’t get support from design teams, those working on software for internal purposes. On average at large enterprises this accounts for 30-50% of product teams. They don’t really need generative AI for user interfaces, they need generative AI to provide insights on user experience for the applications they create. - A company could challenge Figma by offering a user-friendly interface, insightful AI features, and scalable pricing for enterprise-level non-designers.

171

10 Comments

10 months ago, I embarked on this journey with a simple yet ambitious goal: to create an AI assistant that knows you like your best friend and can truly enhance your life. Now, Ario is in open beta! 🎉 This journey has been filled with - Joy from hearing beta users say, "Honestly, I'm stunned, like wow," - Excitement from rounds of rapid iterations - Sudden enlightenment in solving unexpected challenges while building our AI agent Every step has brought us closer to creating something truly special - Ario's Personalized, Proactive and Private. I’d love for you to give Ario a try and let me know your thoughts. Your feedback helps us shape Ario. And if you're also navigating the fascinating world of AI, let’s connect and exchange insights!

20

1 Comment

Was chatting with a product leader from a Y Combinator company last week. 🚀 He'd reached out because they needed greater control and flexibility around pricing & packaging, specifically bundling & unbundling features. 🔄💡 He explained it like this: "The issue we're running into is that it's actually really difficult for us to attach features to plans and quickly move features between plans. Any changes we want to make require dev cycles to support. The goal is to be able to move feature A to plan B or feature B to Plan A rapidly & without code changes, so that we can be a lot more agile with testing optimal packaging." 🔗🛠️ #pricing #packaging #featuremanagement

13

1 Comment

"AI is powerful, but without the right data foundation, it’s just noise." In the latest Tech Teams Today podcast episode, I had a great conversation with Yongsheng Wu, VP of Engineering at Granica, about why a solid data foundation is crucial for AI success. Here are the top insights from the episode: 1️⃣ Data Foundations Matter: Before diving into AI, ensure your data systems are robust. Solid pipelines & data integrity are critical for meaningful insights. 2️⃣ AI as an Enhancer: AI and ML should optimize existing processes, not solve undefined problems. 3️⃣ Data Quality is King: Curating and labeling data accurately is vital for effective AI models. The better the data, the better the outcomes. 4️⃣ Efficiency & Cost-Effectiveness: Successful AI solutions balance effectiveness with cost efficiency, especially as models scale. Catch the full episode on all major podcast platforms or watch it on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/dbkE__JC #AI #EngineeringLeadership #DataScience #MachineLearning #TechTeamsToday

30

4 Comments

After being encouraged by multiple friends to apply to YC with our new AI Career Agent (shout out / thanks Omri Mor, Saroop, Alan, Roham + others!), Beier Cai and I put together an application last week. YC is obviously an amazing place to grow a new product category like AI Career Asssistants, but what I was NOT expecting was the application video driving so much interest. After seeing a spike in waitlist applications, citing “YouTube” as a source, I checked out the video and saw it had already generated >1k of views! If you’re curious, here is a link to the vid. Let me know your thoughts! We are passionate about building Commit: AI Career Agents for Developers into something that ALL tech workers can use to increase their growth and impact!

244

66 Comments