Drafted by me. Free for you to use. Every company needs Product Management but Product Managers look different at every company. I am dedicated to bringing great products to market. I am dedicated to steering the team towards a successful outcome. I will try my hardest to help make forward| Jared Franklin
Every company is dysfunctional to some degree. Below are a few causes: (1) Parkinson's Law: Work will expand to fill the time allotted for its completion. People make work for themselves to fill time and justify their roles. This is often a selfish lens, putting self before company| Jared Franklin
Less conventional: 1. Live where people choose to vacation (or retire). 2. Be a business owner. 3. Be an independent thinker. Come to your own conclusions. 4. Life isn't fair. It can be short. Bad things happen to good people. So you just need keep moving forward. 5.| Jared Franklin
On the eve of the Mint sunset by Intuit, I'm reminded how far I've come and how critical Mint was in my journey. I was such a fan boy of it from 2009-2013, which coincided with the initial full-time earning years. I credit Mint and Ramit| Jared Franklin
Most of us in the VC-backed tech echo chamber love to pretend like we know enough about small businesses to invest in tools for their operators and/or build solutions for them. But the truth is, very few of us can truly empathize and understand their needs since we'| Jared Franklin
Time after time, you'll think to yourself, "but incumbent xyz is already so big." And time after time, a modern, customer-centric player will come out of nowhere and chip away at them, creating a huge business. This will continue on. (timeboxed myself to 20 mins, mostly just resizing images. will| Jared Franklin
I recently published a post highlighting the chasms companies inevitably have to cross as they grow – the leap from single product to multi, single revenue stream to multi, single geo to multi, horizontal vs. vertical, founder-led sales to scaled GTM, and many more. It acknowledged how painful these transitions can| Jared Franklin
Top level metrics This post by Itamar Gilad walks through why you should choose a metric that represents delivered value, and another that represents captured value to help set strategic goals. I like thinking about Slack as an example. I remember first setting it up for Blispay in 2015. It| Jared Franklin
"TAM that is so large, it almost does not merit discussion." That's a quote from this beastly Credit Suisse report, and it's out of context. It's never even really true. But I want to get you in the right frame of mind for this post. It's big by many different| Jared Franklin
Some of the most generational fintech companies are those which I prefer to categorize as "Payments Plus." Payments are core to their value prop, and as a byproduct, the business model relies heavily on transactional revenue. But they also provide value aside from facilitating transactions. These companies usually use payment| Jared Franklin
Someone recently asked me about my comfort with data in the context of product management. And while I think they may have been asking about my SQL proficiency, I prefer to talk about data in the broader context within an organization. I've been fortunate to work in some data-literate organizations| Jared Franklin
One of my favorite things about early-stage startups is the proximity. Everyone internally is close to each other – product to finance, finance to engineering, everyone to leadership, etc. And everyone is seemingly closer to external foks like prospects and users. I'd go as far as to say proximity is the| Jared Franklin
After nearly two fantastic years, I'm finishing up with Costanoa Ventures. I'm compelled to share some thoughts as I ramp up my search for what's next. I've generally believed and advised that your tech career should be about accumulating experiences and relationships. That is not financial advice! The lucrative path| Jared Franklin
This is a quick rant on the complexities and unique challenges fintech companies face as they grow, post series A, which can often baffle outsiders, like those from FAANG or various SaaS domains. Some of the challenges include: * acknowledging a quality component to growth. Early hockey-stick growth can be dangerous,| Jared Franklin
This is a post about a common thread that keeps coming up in conversations lately -- companies thinking through their future and whether they should target a vertical(s), going after targeted sub-sectors. Before we dive in, let's clarify what I mean by 'horizontal' and 'vertical' fintech in this case.| Jared Franklin
