Founder Mode Lessons from Instagram, Airbnb, and Coinbase | Sanchan Saxena (SVP Atlassian)
An inside look at what we can learn from how 4 of the best founders operate
Dear subscribers,
Today, I want to share a new episode with Sanchan Saxena, SVP at Atlassian.
Sanchan worked directly with 4 of the best founders out there — Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger (Instagram), Brian Armstrong (Coinbase), and Brian Chesky (Airbnb). In our interview, he gave us an inside look at what we can learn from each founder’s superpowers and the 4 traits he always looks for when hiring exceptional PMs.
Watch now on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify.
Sanchan and I talked about:
(00:00) The product approach that sets Airbnb and Apple apart
(01:21) Inside Instagram's early days at 100 employees
(03:07) Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger's superpowers
(04:54) How "do the simple thing first" led to Instagram Stories' success
(07:15) The single common trait shared by the greatest founders
(08:50) Brian Armstrong's golden rule, "No decision by committee"
(18:21) What Brian Chesky learned from Disney movies and storytelling
(23:29) Why obsessing over metrics kills product quality
(33:38) Mastering the yin and yang of product management
(42:02) How to set yourself up to get lucky in your career
Check out this post for the interview takeaways.
Here’s the line-up of interviews that are coming next. If you enjoy these conversations, please subscribe to my YouTube channel below 🙂
LinkedIn’s CPO on Scaling to 1B Users and Building AI Products
Tomer Cohen (CPO LinkedIn)Growing your Product and Creator Career in an AI First World
Jiaona Zhang (CPO Linktree)How Duolingo is Democratizing Education with AI
Cem Kansu (Head of Product Duolingo)Inside How Perplexity is Disrupting Online Search
Aravind Srinivas (CEO Perplexity)