01 / recommendation
Recommends Playing to Win.
“Playing to Win, How Strategy Really Works. It's a book called Playing to Win and the subtitle is How Strategy Really Works. Very good book.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
Lenny's Podcast / episode intelligence
Gokul Rajaram on designing your product development process, when and how to hire your first PM, a playbook for hiring leaders, getting ahead in you career, how to get started angel investing, more
Speakers in the public record
Claim mix
belief 7preference 5recommendation 3evaluation 2observation 1prediction 1
Evidence policy
Every row below preserves an exact excerpt. Identified speakers are linked; unresolved voices are labeled and excluded from people counts.
Claim ledger
The useful parts, with receipts.
19 published records
02 / observation
If the founder is able to and willing to play the role of product manager, the problem is with eight to 10 engineers, if the founder is doing other things besides playing the role of a product manager, then the eight to 10% engineering team is not being cared for and fed.
“If the founder is able to and willing to play the role of product manager, the problem is with eight to 10 engineers, if the founder is doing other things besides playing the role of a product manager, then the eight to 10% engineering team is not being cared for and fed.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
03 / belief
I think Zoom makes it harder, but it's very important to understand what else is going on at the company.
“I think Zoom makes it harder, but it's very important to understand what else is going on at the company.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
04 / belief
I think unless you know the founders very, very, very well, joining a very early-stage, early-stage company is, especially now for the next one or two years, it's going to be a brutal market out there.
“I think unless you know the founders very, very, very well, joining a very early-stage, early-stage company is, especially now for the next one or two years, it's going to be a brutal market out there.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
05 / belief
I think the best founders early on trust their engineering teams and product development teams to solve problems and more clearly present the problem to them and help them.
“I think the best founders early on trust their engineering teams and product development teams to solve problems and more clearly present the problem to them and help them.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
06 / belief
You recently had this incredible thread on Twitter about how to hire a leader. And I think maybe just a product leader, maybe broadly leader.
“You recently had this incredible thread on Twitter about how to hire a leader. And I think maybe just a product leader, maybe broadly leader.”
- Speaker
- Lenny Rachitsky
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
07 / belief
I'm very nervous about because I think no one person has all the skills needed to start a company.
“I'm very nervous about because I think no one person has all the skills needed to start a company.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
08 / belief
I think if you are interested in crypto, Coinbase has such a diverse set of things that they work on that it is literally you can work on almost any part of crypto from NFTs to wallets to custody to infrastructure.
“I think if you are interested in crypto, Coinbase has such a diverse set of things that they work on that it is literally you can work on almost any part of crypto from NFTs to wallets to custody to infrastructure.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
09 / belief
What value are they adding? And I think just number one thing you have to do is you have to, just because you hired a PM doesn't, you can't abdicate that responsibility of understanding how the team is doing.
“What value are they adding? And I think just number one thing you have to do is you have to, just because you hired a PM doesn't, you can't abdicate that responsibility of understanding how the team is doing.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
10 / preference
What I think of when you talk about this is something Seth Godin shared a while ago that I always come back to this idea that your product has to be remarkable or people want to remark on it for it to have a chance, especially in consumer, because that's how things start to grow.
“What I think of when you talk about this is something Seth Godin shared a while ago that I always come back to this idea that your product has to be remarkable or people want to remark on it for it to have a chance, especially in consumer, because that's how things start to grow.”
- Speaker
- Lenny Rachitsky
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
11 / prediction
I think especially nowadays, I'm seeing a lot of consumer companies challenged because they relied on Facebook or paid media to drive customer acquisition.
“I think especially nowadays, I'm seeing a lot of consumer companies challenged because they relied on Facebook or paid media to drive customer acquisition.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
12 / preference
And don't just like basically just write things. That's why I think writing is so powerful because it shows the world.
“And don't just like basically just write things. That's why I think writing is so powerful because it shows the world.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
13 / evaluation
I think Stripe, for example, is famous for not hiring PMs because I think when your audience is developers, they know their audience really well.
“I think Stripe, for example, is famous for not hiring PMs because I think when your audience is developers, they know their audience really well.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
14 / recommendation
I think great careers are built by knowing a lot of people, doing great work so they know and want you on their teams and just waiting for serendipity and then seizing it and jumping.
“I think great careers are built by knowing a lot of people, doing great work so they know and want you on their teams and just waiting for serendipity and then seizing it and jumping.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
15 / preference
I'm curious, when you're looking for opportunities, would you suggest people focus on things they're excited about and kind of like passion that's pulling them in or more, I just think this is a big opportunity and maybe I'm not so excited about doing the work, but I'm just going to follow it because it may lead somewhere or some right in the middle.
“I'm curious, when you're looking for opportunities, would you suggest people focus on things they're excited about and kind of like passion that's pulling them in or more, I just think this is a big opportunity and maybe I'm not so excited about doing the work, but I'm just going to follow it because it may lead somewhere or some right in the middle.”
- Speaker
- Lenny Rachitsky
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
16 / preference
i started angel investing in 2007 15 years ago and like many people i started because my friends and colleagues were leaving to start companies this is when i was at google and they were leaving to start companies so literally without doing much i just wanted to support them because i'd worked with them and so i just put a small check into the companies and some failed some did really well but ultimately i realized that for me investing is all about supporting people much more so than companies themselves.
“i started angel investing in 2007 15 years ago and like many people i started because my friends and colleagues were leaving to start companies this is when i was at google and they were leaving to start companies so literally without doing much i just wanted to support them because i'd worked with them and so i just put a small check into the companies and some failed some did really well but ultimately i realized that for me investing is all about supporting people much more so than companies themselves.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
17 / recommendation
I think putting in the process upfront is really important because you can flounder around and then just spending a full four or five hours upfront talking to a few folks, coming to the good process.
“I think putting in the process upfront is really important because you can flounder around and then just spending a full four or five hours upfront talking to a few folks, coming to the good process.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
18 / evaluation
I love that advice and it's the way I think about it too. The only downside is if you have worked at an awesome company or two or three, it becomes a very expensive hobby because you end up knowing a lot of awesome people that are doing great things.
“I love that advice and it's the way I think about it too. The only downside is if you have worked at an awesome company or two or three, it becomes a very expensive hobby because you end up knowing a lot of awesome people that are doing great things.”
- Speaker
- Lenny Rachitsky
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast
19 / preference
i enjoy it i think the thing is i enjoy it because i have been a founder myself not a very successful one so one of the things i love hearing i always start to tell me your founding story and every founder likes to tell the financing and that's where i listen closely for authenticity to understand how they met each other the two founders hopefully multiple founders how they knew each other and how they came up with this idea that they're going after versus and what problem they're tackling and so A, I have a standard set of questions I ask so that way I can spend my time not thinking of questions to ask, but just listening and just learning.
“i enjoy it i think the thing is i enjoy it because i have been a founder myself not a very successful one so one of the things i love hearing i always start to tell me your founding story and every founder likes to tell the financing and that's where i listen closely for authenticity to understand how they met each other the two founders hopefully multiple founders how they knew each other and how they came up with this idea that they're going after versus and what problem they're tackling and so A, I have a standard set of questions I ask so that way I can spend my time not thinking of questions to ask, but just listening and just learning.”
- Speaker
- Gokul Rajaram
- Publisher
- Lenny's Podcast