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Discussion on: I am a YC alumnus & 3X VC-funded founder-CTO. AMA!

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kp profile image
KP • Edited

Thanks for the AMA.

  1. Would you rather bootstrap or go after VC funding?
  2. As a product manager with 2 decades of experience, is going for YC worth the equity I'd be giving up?
  3. Unrelated: Do you think there is value in a dev.to equivalent for Product managers, entrepreneurs, etc? It's a smaller market than the developer community, but is there potential there in your eyes and would you use it?
  4. Biggest life lesson?
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mohanarpit profile image
Arpit Mohan

Great questions @kp . Thanks for asking!

  1. In an ideal world, I'd bootstrap but in a practical world, I'd raise VC money. Imagine sitting at a poker table carrying $10 while everyone else is carrying $10,000. Winning at that table is not impossible, just very low probability.

  2. It depends on what you need from YC. Clearly, not product development advice. IMHO, YC gives you a network of kickass alumnus, a peer group that pushes you, access to VCs on demo day & most importantly, an early distribution channel for your product (your own batch). That last one is invaluable to get early product feedback.

  3. I don't think I've come across a dev.to for PMs. In fact, the other day, our product manager asked the same question. If Design == Dribbble, Programming == Dev.to, Product Management == ? I think there's definitely potential there.

  4. Biggest learning has been; "It's all about the people". Do right by your team, vendors, partner and they will reward you many-fold over your lifetime. Optimize for completing the marathon v/s winning a sprint.

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kp profile image
KP

Thanks @mohanarpit this is super helpful. I especially liked "Optimize for completing the marathon v/s winning a sprint." You can never go wrong with long-term thinking.