Vickie Peng is a Product Partner at Sequoia and one of the cocreators of Arc, their companybuilding immersion programme for preseed and seed stage founders. Prior to Sequoia, Vickie was a product manager at Polyvore (acquired by Yahoo for $200M) and Instagram, where she grew SMB advertising from $200M to $1BN.


Timestamps:

(0:00) Intro
(01:10) Lessons from TrialPay
(07:32) Product Lessons from Polyvore
(11:56) Biggest Takeaways from Instagram
(16:23) Good vs. Great Product Mission
(21:49) Starting Point for Effective Product Strategy
(27:09) Three Different Types of PMF
(31:10) Advising Founders in Competitive Markets
(37:58) Future Vision
(46:59) QuickFire Round


In Today’s Episode with Vickie Peng We Discuss:

1. Lessons from 15 Years in Product:
How did Vickie make her way into the world of product?
How did Vickie turn a small side business into a massive revenue machine at TrialPay?
How did Vickie scale Instagram SMB ads to $1BN? What were her takeaways?
What was Vickie’s business model at Polyvore that eventually led to the $200M acquisition by Yahoo?

2. EarlyStage Founder Advice:
What does Vickie believe are the biggest mistakes early stage founders make when telling stories?
Which 2 components does Vickie believe every great product mission should include?
How should preproductmarket fit founders set their north star metric?

3. Perfecting Product Strategy:
What was Vickie’s biggest product mistake? What were her lessons?
Why does Vickie think the best product people build less product?
What is Vickie’s advice to product leaders starting their first day on the job?
What are the most common mistakes founders make when hiring product teams?

4. ProductMarket Fit Masterclass:
Why does Vickie believe productmarket fit is a journey not a destination?
What are the biggest reasons founders fail to get productmarket fit?
What are the 3 types of productmarket fit?
How does Vickie advise founders to differentiate themselves in competitive markets?
What is Vickie’s framework for competing against incumbents?


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