Founders Do Not Need to Remain Head of Product
Geoff Charles · Geoff Charles: How To Hire Product Teams & Increase Product Velocity | E1091 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Dec 6, 2023 · at 49:10
Geoff Charles, VP of Product at Ramp, responds to a quote from a Shopify executive asserting that a tech company dies the day its founder stops acting as Head of Product.
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“I listened to that and I love that. I don't agree. And again, this is the Shopify, you know, obviously, you know, Toby's like very involved in the product surface area at ramp. I think we have Slightly different approach. I think that the, our founder Eric is very focused on our vision, very focused on our brand, very focused on our marketing and our story and our positioning in the market. And it has a very strong sense of what we want to be as a company and a very, very high bar for who we want at the company, how we get there. I don't think that it's necessarily super important for the founder to have the strongest opinion. I think that they need to shepherd the culture to get there. They need to hold the teams accountable for high velocity. They need to be able to opine on what looks good and what it doesn't. What is a good decision, a bad decision, but you need to have an empowered product team and tech team that actually calls the shots in terms of the sequencing.”
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