🏋️ Issue #40: The Product Management Game
The founding story of Product Gym, how to break into Product Management, and the little EV truck that could
💬 Welcome to issue #40 of Between the Lines
Our newsletter last week was so good that Substack wanted to send it to you twice. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ In all sincerity, though, we apologize for the duplicate emails you may have received.
In other news, Product Management has become one of the best jobs to have in 2022 according to Glassdoor. With that, however, comes increased competition and difficulty for interested candidates. Accomplished PM Cody Chang shares below why he founded Product Gym and how to best land a job in one of the most coveted roles.
~ Josh & Miles
📢 👥 Community Voices: The Product Management Game & How To Play It
Author: Cody Chang
Cody Chang is a serial entrepreneur based in NYC. He started a web development agency back in HS, and after graduating from Claremont, he joined the founding team of an Asia-based pharmaceutical logistics company which he helped raise $30M+. He later relocated to Singapore as the COO of an Investment Bank, and then returned to NYC as a Senior PM at Learnvest ( acquired by Northwestern Mutual) and later Vimeo. With over seven years of product owner experience, Cody then co-founded Product Gym — a software product management community dedicated to helping working professionals transition into the PM industry. He is also the current Head of Product at Quadency, a cryptocurrency trading platform.
The tech-recruiting cycle is incredibly and massively broken. It doesn’t matter whether you are looking for a software engineering gig or a copywriting job. If the prospective company is looking to hire a knowledge-worker, especially in this remote-first work environment, they’ll be subjecting you to the typical resume via website screening, calls, panel interviews, etc. Gone are the boomer days of walking up confidently to a physical office and handing someone your resume (although, I guess this still happens occasionally). The job candidate no longer has the opportunity to directly communicate with the job they are interested in as multiple, unforgiving filters are set up as barriers against the candidate. While this is efficient for the employer hiring, this process punishes fully-qualified candidates by reducing their experience within mechanical boundaries. I had to learn this the hard way…
With my business partner, we decided to start Product Gym to increase the focus on job acquisition, in addition to job readiness. And when I look back at the nearly 1,500+ product managers we’ve placed, I’ve realized that there is no ‘degree’ for Product Management. Even if there was, it’s unlikely that it holds any credit in the industry, much like the certificate mills that are profiting off of unsuspecting students. So, what can prospective product managers do to successfully transition into this role, especially if they have zero technical experience? 👇
🚨Claremonster Call-Out: Jon Kirchner
Jon Kirchner is a Claremont alumnus and a seasoned leader in the technology space. After starting his career as a CPA at Price Waterhouse, Jon left to become the CFO at Xperi Corporations. He has since spent almost three decades at Xperi serving as CFO, COO, President, and now the CEO. Xperi invents, develops, and delivers technologies via its brands (DTS, HD Radio, IMAX Enhanced, Invensas, TiVo), to make entertainment more entertaining, and smart devices smarter. Their technologies are integrated into billions of consumer devices, media platforms, and semiconductors worldwide and Jon has been there since nearly the beginning. Somehow, Jon also finds time to be on the board of a variety of other successful technology companies, including Samba TV (founded by another CMC alumnus Ashwin Navin). Congrats to Jon for coming up on 29-years of technology leadership at Xperi!
🤝 Pardon the Introduction: Tim Gallagher
Tim Gallagher (CMC) grew up in the rural countryside of Vermont where he spent his time hitting the slopes, stacking wood, and playing ping pong. At Claremont, he started the nationally ranked Table Tennis Club and was involved in numerous other extracurriculars like Director of Tours, RA of Appleby, and chemistry tutor. After graduation, Tim went to a lab in Germany to pursue his own independent research as a Fulbright Fellow. Since then, he’s been at Scripps Research building molecules as a fully-funded graduate research fellow. Tim will graduate from Scripps this May with his master’s in Chemistry and is looking to get into the start-up, VC, or product management space with a focus on building disruptive technologies that redefine how people operate daily.
I'm keen on working with people that are currently building (or helping to build) some form of software or company that disrupts how people view their day to day, and makes overall life better. I'm currently interviewing with VC firms, tech firms for PM roles, and the canonical associate consulting positions.
If you or your company have any openings that may be relevant, email Tim here!
💼 Who’s Hiring?:
Apply for a summer internship in product management, engineering, and data science at Chorus Sleep (Y Combinator-backed W '21), founded by CMC alumna Ali Abramovitz Cook. Chorus helps users sleep better by combining 15-minute relaxing audio sessions with short lessons and morning sleep logs to quiet racing thoughts. Many apps help track your sleep, but research finds they do little to actually improve it. Chorus is changing that by building the next-generation sleep product - one that doesn’t just track sleep; it improves it.
Chorus’ evidence-based approach resulted in 90% of users experiencing improved sleep in internal studies and is being further validated in this clinical trial, the gold standard of establishing a program’s efficacy led by Harvard Psychology Researcher David Weissman, Ph.D.
Chorus is looking for a full-time intern to work across product management, engineering, and data science this summer.
HMC alumnus, Jim Castelaz, is the founder and CTO of Motiv Power Systems. Motiv is a sustainable technology company delivering proven electric trucks, bus chassis, and related charging infrastructure. They’re committed to freeing fleets from fossil fuels and providing fleets a seamless pathway to electrification. The company’s solutions not only offer fleets up to 85% operations and maintenance cost savings but also provide operators and riders a healthier and more comfortable experience without polluting the communities they serve. Join the other four Claremont folks already working at the company!
Make sure to check out the other 5,000+ open jobs at 400+ Claremont-affiliated companies here on our Storyboard. Plus, make sure to create a profile and enter your preferences to get alerted to new job postings relevant to you, be they the 750+ remote jobs, 180+ internships, or 30+ part-time positions available. We’ve published research that shows that Claremont-founded companies that disproportionately hire Claremont talent outperform — so pay attention Claremonsters!
As always, if any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines. Or if you are an employer and are looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured.
🗣️ Conversations on the Interwebz:
This week’s top read listen 🔥
Samir Kaji, a fellow VC Substacker and the CEO/Founder of Allocate, recently interviewed CMC alumnus Drew Oetting about his critical learnings as an investor and how influential the Claremont network has been for his career. Drew is a founding partner of 8VC, focusing on various stages and sectors including vertical software, health delivery, and biomanufacturing.
Everything else you need to know….📖
Pitzer alumnus Dan Mitchell, the former co-founder of Sheprd and the current City & Community Engagement lead for Nuro, shares Nuro’s recent operations happening in LA - they’re beginning autonomous vehicle testing using their fleet of Prius vehicles. They’ve also raised over $2B in VC funding and are on a mission to better everyday life through robotics.
7 years and a thousand pitches…Crunchbase (founded by CMC alumnus Michael Arrington) shares fundraising tips from Tuesday Capital’s partner - Prashant Fonseka (CMC). Claremont runs deep folks.
Great advice about the dangers of growing too quickly from seasoned investor and co-founder/partner of Village Global - Ben Casnocha (CMC).
Mike Z (CMC) talks about how to build a career in cannabis, the craziest thing that’s ever happened to him, and his new professorship job at LIM College.
Can’t get enough of Between the Lines? Follow and connect with us on Twitter!
🍽️ BTL Snacks:
🌎 The Avant-Garde of ClimateTech….. LanzaTech and CEO Jennifer Holmgren (HMC) have not only demonstrated that they can produce carbon-negative ethanol on an industrial scale, but they have also used ethanol as an industrial chemical “platform” to create plastic bottles, yoga plants, aviation fuel, and an increasing number of various consumer products.
📈 Private Investing, Dead Simple….. Sydecar, co-founded by David Meister (CMC), is a frictionless deal execution platform for venture investors; and they recently raised $8M+ from a variety of institutional and angel investors. Hear from Viny Singh on why he and Anthemis think this company is the real deal and read more about Sydecar on Business Insider.
🚚 The Little EV Truck That Could….. An electric truck hauling 6K lbs of payload traveled 150 miles south from SFs Golden Gate Bridge to the Bixby Bridge in Big Sur using Motiv technology. Motiv, founded by Jim Castelaz (HMC), is the leading innovator of EV vans, trucks, and shuttle buses. Check out their video below.
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