The first half of this episode covers best practices and frameworks used by best-in-class fintech companies like Square and Mercury to build products and drive go-to-market.   In the second half, we discuss insights and learnings for PM career planning in fintech, including ways to prepare for the potential impact of AI on product jobs. Joining me for this discussion is Rohini Pandhi - Product Lead at Mercury and ex-Product Lead at Square/ Block. She is also a prolific angel investor, and co-founder of both the SquareAngels alumni syndicate and Transparent Collective, a non-profit that supports underrepresented founders. TIME STAMPS: (01:08) Square’s product-building philosophy - “The Four Corners” (03:46) Square’s framework for building MVPs - “Pioneers, Town Settlers, City Planners” (11:02) Managing customer discovery and feedback while launching a product in 99 countries (14:11) Building Block’s Bitcoin hardware wallet while FTX was imploding (16:29) How to approach pricing - “Monetizing Innovation” by Madhavan Ramanujam (21:05) Transitioning from a big company to a startup, a framework for choosing your next job (25:08) Mercury's product philosophy and culture (27:31) Dealing with change, career planning, and finding your next job as AI disrupts the PM function Connect with Rohini - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohinipandhi/ and follow her on X - @rohinip ***** Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for weekly posts on Startups, Investing, and Life. I am a venture investor focused on the US-India corridor. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumitrasharma5/) and follow me on X (@soumitra_sharma).

This episode covers the brass tacks of doing 0-to-1 as a cybersecurity startup. We are joined by two venture-backed founders in the space, both of whom are also experienced engineering leaders in the domain: (1) Buchi Reddy (Founder and CEO, Levo.ai; ex-Traceable AI, ex-AppDynamics) (2) Ruchir Patwa (Co-founder and CEO, SydeLabs; ex-Google, ex-Mobile Premier League) TIME STAMPS: (00:00) Intro (02:05) Choosing whether to go enterprise or SMB (06:04) Assembling the right initial team (12:02) Thinking through MVPs (17:50) Learnings from doing cybersecurity at Google (22:05) GTM for enterprise customers (27:28) Engaging with the developer ecosystem (34:01) How is AI changing cybersecurity Connect with Buchi - https://www.linkedin.com/in/buchireddy/ Connect with Ruchir - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruchirpatwa/ ***** Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for weekly posts on Startups, Investing, and Life. I am a venture investor focused on the US-India corridor. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumitrasharma5/) and follow me on X (@soumitra_sharma).