Shows
Rocketship.fmThe Final Episode of Rocketship.FM (for now)After more than a decade of stories, insights, and interviews from the world of tech, this is the final episode of Rocketship.FM… at least for now.In part one, host Mike Belsito opens up about the decision to hit pause on the show. Following the acquisition of Product Collective and diving deep into new responsibilities at Pendo and Mind the Product, time has become a rare commodity. And the little free time that is available? That’s now reserved for what matters most — family. Plus, let’s face it — Rocketship.FM was always more fun w...
2025-03-2839 minRocketship.fmReturning to the Rocketship: Michael Sacca's Vision for LeadpagesIn this special episode of Rocketship.FM, we welcome back the podcast’s original founder, Michael Sacca, for a unique and insightful conversation. Recently appointed as CEO of Leadpages, Michael brings with him a wealth of experience from his years as a product executive across early-stage startups. Now, he faces the challenge of leading an established, well-known company through a period of growth and innovation. This episode explores Michael's approach to his new role, his vision for the future of Leadpages, and the mindset shifts he's making as he moves from product leader to CEO.Join us as...
2024-11-0732 min
Make It Mindful: Insights for Global Learning#15 Community-First Learning with Rocketship Schools’ Preston SmithOn this week's episode, host Seth Fleischauer interviews Preston Smith, CEO and co-founder of Rocketship Schools. The discussion revolves around Rocketship's -innovative, community-centered approach. Any Rocketship campus begins with an exploration of the school's families' and community's values. Preston describes how these diverse ideas are incorporated while scaling around a central model and how conscious parent engagement begins with meaningful relationships. We also examine Rocketship's introduction of digital citizenship in early elementary years. Tune in to discover how trust and mindfulness drive Rocketship's educational success.---Preston Smith co-founded Rocketship in 2006. He has held numerous r...
2023-09-2531 minRocketship.fmRocketship.fm interviews ChatGPTChat GPT is a new language processing technology that's set to revolutionize the way we interact with computers and machines. It's the latest development in the field of artificial intelligence, and it's got a lot of people talking. It’s a product of OpenAI and was opened up in a public beta on November 30th – and it’s already surpassed 1 million users. Today we interview ChatGPT itself in what is a first for us here on Rocketship.fm - our first interview with an AI. This podcast is brought to you by:Accelev...
2022-12-1531 min
The VCpreneur: Startups | Venture Capital | Entrepreneurship | FundraisingEP#60 Madhu Shalini Iyer – Leveraging data science to invest in startups and the global investment perspective at Rocketship VCIn this episode, Madhu Shalini Iyer (Partner, Rocketship VC), joins our host Digjay, to talk about her path leading up to Rocketship VC, genesis of Rocketship VC and its unique data-led approach to investing in startups, incorporating qualitative inputs from past deals to refine data algorithms, combining data with the human element to make the final investment decision, outlier founders from Rocketship’s portfolio, cross-geography learnings for founders given Rocketship’s global portfolio, how Madhu’s global experience has shaped her personality and more.
Rocketship VC is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that uses machine learning and da...
2022-08-0754 minRocketship.fmWeb3: Mike's first NFTOn today's episode, we dive deeper into the Tilt's use of a Creator Coin and NFTs to bring its creator community together. Plus, Mike talks about his experience buying his first NFT.***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Visit https://www.sendinblue.com/rocketship/ and use promo code ROCKETSHIP for 50% off your first three months on a premium accountHawke Media: Get a free consultation on your business when you visit hawkemedia.com/podcast and use the promo code ROCKET.Vidyard: Th...
2022-03-3125 minRocketship.fmWeb3: Down the Rabbit HoleOn the first episode of season 12, we start a deep dive into Web3 that will ultimately lead to Mike's first foray into NFT's, cryptocurrency, and the whole nine yards. Today, we talk to members of the Tilt community, including founder Joe Pulizzi, a creator community that uses cryptocurrency called $TILT coin to bring the community together.***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Visit https://www.sendinblue.com/rocketship/ and use promo code ROCKETSHIP for 50% off your first three months on a premium accountHawke Media: Get...
2022-03-2432 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Journeys: DripWhen Rob Walling launched Drip, he was doing $7K in monthly recurring revenue. But he quickly realized that his revenue had already flat-lined and that he had a high customer churn problem. He was competing with behemoths like Mail Chimp and Marketo with a team of just 3 engineers.Drip started as a simple opt-in pop-up with an autoresponder. It then evolved into an email service provider, to finally become a marketing automation platform. That’s when it hit real product-market fit and churn immediately started plummeting.Rob sold Drip to Leadpages almost 3 years ago. Recently, he...
2022-03-1728 min
Rocketship.fmDigital Transformations: Sling TV and Ordnance SurveyOn our last installment of our Digital Transformations miniseries featuring Christian Idiodi, we take a look at how organizations both old and new can go through a transformation journey. Plus, Christian reflects on the most important lessons we learned over the last few episodes.***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Visit https://www.sendinblue.com/rocketship/ and use promo code ROCKETSHIP for 50% off your first three months on a premium accountHawke Media: Get a free consultation on your business when you visit h...
2022-03-1036 minRocketship.fmDigital Transformations: John Deere and Ramsey SolutionsOn today's installment of our Digital Transformations mini-season with Christian Idiodi, we're talking about household brands John Deere and Ramsey Solutions, and how they underwent changes among its people and processes in order to achieve their transformation.***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Visit https://www.sendinblue.com/rocketship/ and use promo code ROCKETSHIP for 50% off your first three months on a premium accountHawke Media: Get a free consultation on your business when you visit hawkemedia.com/podcast and use the promo co...
2022-03-0329 minRocketship.fmDigital Transformations: DatasiteToday, we're introducing a mini-season featuring Christian Idiodi, where Christian recounts stories of digital transformations within legacy organizations. ***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Visit https://www.sendinblue.com/rocketship/ and use promo code ROCKETSHIP for 50% off your first three months on a premium accountHawke Media: Get a free consultation on your business when you visit hawkemedia.com/podcast and use the promo code ROCKET.Vidyard: The Top Video Tool for SaaS Marketing and Sales http://vidyard.com/rocketship...
2022-02-2433 min
Rocketship.fmStop that A/B Test (and do this instead)Today we talk with Ben Foster the Chief Product Officer at WOOP and former product manager at Ebay. Ben is a wealth of Product knowledge and experience and today we discuss the topic of A/B testing and how he's evolved his focus to be vision driven so that he doesn't miss the big opportunities to solve customer problems. This was a hard learned lesson and we hear about his experience A/B testing features with moderate success and what caused him to shift if focus.***This episode is brought to you by:
2022-02-1721 minRocketship.fmBonus: Product Failure QuibiToday on Rocketship.fm, we're diving in on Quibi, covering what the short-form content company got right, and ultimately, what they got wrong. We'll look into some of the innovative technology they created, as well as the internal and external factors that helped lead to its demise.***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Visit https://www.sendinblue.com/rocketship/ and use promo code ROCKETSHIP for 50% off your first three months on a premium accountHawke Media: Get a free consultation on your business...
2022-02-1033 minRocketship.fmA Koch, a Kennedy, and a wind turbine walk into a bar…Today, we talk with Annie Ropiek, Environmental Reporter working for NPR, about her fascinating work researching offshore winds - from the tech to the politics, there’s a lot to take away. ***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Visit https://www.sendinblue.com/rocketship/ and use promo code ROCKETSHIP for 50% off your first three months on a premium accountHawke Media: Get a free consultation on your business when you visit hawkemedia.com/podcast and use the promo code ROCKET.Vidyard: The T...
2022-02-0323 minRocketship.fmProduct Lessons from Christian IdiodiToday, we kick it old school, breaking down a talk by Christian Idiodi from 2020 on the big mistakes he sees companies constantly making, and how not to make them (or fix them) at your organization.***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Visit https://www.sendinblue.com/rocketship/ and use promo code ROCKETSHIP for 50% off your first three months on a premium accountHawke Media: Get a free consultation on your business when you visit hawkemedia.com/podcast and use the promo code ROCKET....
2022-01-2732 minRocketship.fmAntitrust: Bored Ape Lawsuit Club (Season Finale)This season, we've covered everything from the Facebook Papers to ConstitutionDAO, taking a closer look at how the concept of antitrust, and how technology, for all it’s glorious advancements, has also helped to break down the trust we have with corporations, governments and institutions. On today's episode, we'll recap some of the biggest lawsuits facing companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook, and what the future of web3 looks like following the big year crypto and NFTs had in 2021.***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Vi...
2022-01-2026 min
Rocketship.fmAntitrust: Asher Luzzatto for Mayor of Los AngelesAsher Luzzatto is running for mayor of Los Angeles on a platform that is pro-technology, pro-decentralization, and pro-crypto. We've made our full interview with Asher available so you can hear what a near-future platform sounds like - and decide for yourself if this is the future you want.***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Visit https://www.sendinblue.com/rocketship/ and use promo code ROCKETSHIP for 50% off your first three months on a premium accountHawke Media: Get a free consultation on your business when you...
2022-01-1529 minRocketship.fmAntitrust: CryptoCitiesCities are now producing their own Cryptocurrencies and Mayors are competing to prove they are more Crypto-friendly than the next. But is this a good thing? We break down the hype around the MiamiCoin and then sit down with Los Angeles Mayoral Candidate, Asher Luzzatto, to hear about his plans to use technology as a force for good under his Mayorship.***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Visit https://www.sendinblue.com/rocketship/ and use promo code ROCKETSHIP for 50% off your first three months on...
2022-01-1326 minRocketship.fmJohn Madden: Product LeaderToday, we’re going to bring you an episode on the incredible product journey of Madden Football - in part, to honor the recent passing of American football legendary coach, broadcaster, and, in a way, product person - today, in this special bonus episode of Rocketship.FM.***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Visit https://www.sendinblue.com/rocketship/ and use promo code ROCKETSHIP for 50% off your first three months on a premium accountHawke Media: Get a free consultation on your business wh...
2022-01-1124 minRocketship.fm2022 Tech PredictionsOn today's episode, we talk about our predictions for 2022 around technology, work, marketing, and general industry trends, and then we’ll wrap up what we’re most excited about and what we’re least excited about.***This episode is brought to you by:Sendinblue: Visit https://www.sendinblue.com/rocketship/ and use promo code ROCKETSHIP for 50% off your first three months on a premium accountHawke Media: Get a free consultation on your business when you visit hawkemedia.com/podcast and use the promo code ROCKET.
2022-01-0627 minRocketship.fmAntitrust: Counterfeit Goods (and why your Amazon cart is full of them)Due to the nature of Amazon's third-party seller system, it's becoming more difficult for for Amazon to actually police products for counterfeit goods. This is creating a problem where customers who get sold a fake product have no recourse. But not all counterfeits are bad. In this episode, we'll discuss the problems customers face with counterfeit items, but also the innovative counterfeit culture, like Shanzhai, which finds ways to improve existing products by working outside of copyright laws.***This episode is brought to you by:Hawke Media...
2021-12-2330 minRocketship.fmAntitrust: Democratization of InvestmentsWith the advent of apps like Robinhood and laws like Reg CF, people have more access to investments than ever. But with more power comes more responsibility. Today, we'll talk about the groups who made investing more democratic, and we’ll how they may actually be responsible for some very serious things. Because, there’s actually a bit of downside to this democratization of investments as well. All this and more on today's episode of Rocketship.fm.***This episode is brought to you by:Hawke Media: Get a fr...
2021-12-1632 minRocketship.fmAntitrust: Product Addiction (with Nir Eyal)Products collect more data on us than ever before. While it’s generally used to improve our experience, the algorithms and product experiences have gotten so good it’s near indistinguishable from magic, and we can’t get enough. It’s burning us out, so much so that people are now regularly announcing social media hiatuses and taking fancy remote retreats just to get away. So how did this happen and what can we do - today on Rocketship.fm. ***This episode is brought to you by:Hawke Medi...
2021-12-1436 min
Rocketship.fmAntitrust: Engagement Loops (are ruining the world)Engagement loops themselves are not inherently bad - but at scale they may causing more harm than good when applied to massive social networks. In the context of connecting billions of people around the world on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, they’re having a negative effect on society that is degrading our trust in each other and the system that govern. Today, we talk about the ways that feedback loops are shaping the way we think and how people in positions of wealth and power exploit them, and create a more negative and mean-spirited world in its wa...
2021-12-0925 min
Rocketship.fmAntitrust: ConstitutionDAOA consortium of crypto investors pulled together $47 million worth of ether in a week to try to buy a rare, first-edition copy of the U.S. Constitution at a Sotheby’s auction — and lost. Today we cover the auction and aftermath of this historical moment.***This episode is brought to you by:Vidyard: The Top Video Tool for SaaS Marketing and Sales http://vidyard.com/rocketshipNetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to nets...
2021-12-0226 min
Rocketship.fmAntitrust: Web3, DAOs, ICOs & ProtocolsIn the evolving world of Web3 there are some incredible developments from the ConstitutionDAO to Solana, a new blockchain that’s faster and more efficient that both Bitcoin and Etherium. But with these new advancements there are scams abound in this unregulated world. Today we take another look at the emerging world of Web3.***This episode is brought to you by:Vidyard: The Top Video Tool for SaaS Marketing and Sales http://vidyard.com/rocketshipNetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run al...
2021-11-1830 min
Rocketship.fmAntitrust: The Facebook PapersThe internal documents now known as The Facebook Papers, or Facebook Files, are a damning documentation of how the social media giant knowingly causes real world harm. Examples include measures to suppress hateful, deceptive content are lifted after the American presidential election in 2020, as the pro-Trump group “Stop the Steal,” which disputes the legitimacy of the election, experience “meteoric” growth. A dummy test account on Facebook in India is flooded with violent anti-Muslim propaganda - leading researchers to seeing more pictures of dead bodies than they have in their entire lives.A trove of internal Facebook documents reveals...
2021-11-0431 min
Rocketship.fmAntitrust: Data Privacy & OwnershipToday, we're diving into the deep and dark world of data and privacy. The internet is filled with bad actors intent on harvesting data with intents varying from selling to the highest bidder to influencing elections. Big tech companies like Facebook and Google are able to track everything we do online (and offline). Do we even have privacy anymore? Thankfully, there are companies actively working to make it easier for us, the consumers, to control our data and governments are not only enacting data privacy laws like GDPR, there is a growing movement around actual ownership of our data...
2021-10-2830 minRocketship.fmAntitrust: Hustle CultureWhile we started with the Lawsuits, today I want to take a different look at the concept of Anti-trust, focusing on a place where trust has been broken amongst the entrepreneurial community. Hustle Culture promotes this idea that if you work around the clock and live on 2 hours of sleep a day, the world will be your oyster and you'll be rich, famous and powerful. We now have an entire generation that is living without a safety net and forced into this world of non-stop hustle. In reality, these lies can be destructive - but the results aren't apparent u...
2021-10-2134 minRocketship.fmAntitrust: (Mis)informationToday we’re going to explore how the internet has evolved to both democratize access to information, leading to incredible breakthroughs, and be a platform for spreading mass misinformation at rates and scales we’ve never seen before. At times, the internet represents the best part of humanity on display. One country releases the genetic sequence of a virus that’s spreading globally and scientists around the world get to work creating a never-before-created vaccine using technology that has never been used to produce a vaccine before. However, it also helped the spread of misinformation about th...
2021-10-1431 minRocketship.fmAntitrust: The LawsuitsTechnology’s rapid advance has undermined society’s foundations. As misinformation spreads, privacy vanishes, and counterfeit goods proliferate, science promises us further advances, from stronger artificial intelligence to neuralink implants and quantum computing. More upheaval is on its way.But the same advances that have created these hard problems have also connected people the world over, democratized information access, and let small businesses expand nationally and even globally. And without cutting-edge technologies, we wouldn’t have the mRNA vaccines that are helping to curb a global pandemic.This season we’re looking at the good, the bad...
2021-10-0728 minRocketship.fmBubble Trouble with ex-Chief Economist at Spotify Will Page and independent analyst Richard KramerToday, we sit down with the hosts of Bubble Trouble, ex-Chief Economist at Spotify Will Page and independent analyst Richard Kramer, as they lay out some inconvenient truths about how financial markets really work.Further Learning:Hayman Minsky - Stabilizing an Unstable EconomyTricia Wang - The Human Insights Missing from Big Data***This episode is brought to you by:Vidyard: The Top Video Tool for SaaS Marketing and Sales http://vidyard.com/rocketshipNetSuite: NetSuite...
2021-09-3036 minRocketship.fmThe ethics and implications of growth at all costs with consumer advocate Adam LevinWith over 50 years working in consumer protections, Adam Levin has helped to spur some of the largest consumer protection cases and has built some of the largest consumer protection brands throughout his career. Today he joins us to discuss what he’s learned - from the Firestone Tire Recall of 1978 to building Credit.com. Today Adam is the host of “What the hack with Adam Levin,” and the the author of the Amazon Best Seller Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves.***This episode is brought to you by...
2021-09-2326 min
Rocketship.fmRapid Research with Sarah DoodyToday we discuss ways that we can learn from our customers and integrate it into the product decision-making process. But. we’re not talking about asking customers what they want. we’re simply talking abou learning from them. Hopefully, Steve Jobs and Henry Ford aren't too disappointed.***This episode is brought to you by:Vidyard: The Top Video Tool for SaaS Marketing and Sales http://vidyard.com/rocketshipNetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to netsuite.com/r...
2021-09-1628 min
Rocketship.fmCracking the Product Management career with Jackie BavaroJackie Bavaro brings her expertise to this episode with some advice for those who are looking to get ahead in their career as a Product Manager, and move into product leadership roles.***This episode is brought to you by:Vidyard: The Top Video Tool for SaaS Marketing and Sales http://vidyard.com/rocketshipNetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to netsuite.com/rocketship today.Blinkist: Rocketship.fm is now on Blinkist! Listen to 12 minute...
2021-09-0926 min
Rocketship.fmLeading Product Teams with Jules Walter, Product Leader at Youtube Jules Walter -- a Product Leader at YouTube takes us through the key lessons learned when transitioning from Product Manager to Product Leader.***This episode is brought to you by:Vidyard: The Top Video Tool for SaaS Marketing and Sales http://vidyard.com/rocketshipNetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to netsuite.com/rocketship today.Blinkist: Rocketship.fm is now on Blinkist! Listen to 12 minute episodes with no ads! Get seven days free when y...
2021-09-0228 min
Rocketship.fmJEDI mind tricks with Teresa Torres Teresa developed her very own Customer Discovery framework, which is central to the work she does today. She recently released a book -- Continuous Discovery Habits that really goes deep into that framework. But today, she's here to talk about how product can to better support Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion through her JEDI principles.***This episode is brought to you by:Vidyard: The Top Video Tool for SaaS Marketing and Sales http://vidyard.com/rocketshipNetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of y...
2021-08-2632 min
Rocketship.fmBeyond the MVP: A framework for continued product success with Ash MauryaAsh Maurya is the author of Running Lean, Scaling Lean, and Creator of Lean Canvas and in today's bonus episode is here to talk about how to build a successful framework for ongoing product success, especially after a launch. There are so many frameworks focused on getting you to market, but what about all the problems that come up after launching? Don't worry, Ash has some ideas for you today.***This episode is brought to you by:Vidyard: The Top Video Tool for SaaS Marketing and Sales http://vidyard.com...
2021-08-1930 min
Rocketship.fmReimagining Mens Health: One founders journey from personal recovery to mass marketSaad Alam, two-time founder, found himself struggling mentally and physically after his first exit and he had no idea how to fix it - and neither did most of the doctors he went to see. This set him on a journey to solve this mystery of what was happening to his body, and as a result set him on a path to reimagining men's access to testing and treatment with Hone Health.***This episode is brought to you by:Vidyard: The Top Video Tool for SaaS Marketing and Sales http...
2021-08-1225 min
Rocketship.fmWorking Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside AmazonWorking Backwards is an insider's breakdown of Amazon's approach to culture, leadership, and best practices from two long-time Amazon executives―with lessons and techniques you can apply to your own company, and career, right now. Today we chat with the authors' Bill Carr & Colin Bryar about their time working directly with Jeff Bezos on some of Amazon's biggest product innovations.***This episode is brought to you by:Vidyard: The Top Video Tool for SaaS Marketing and Sales http://vidyard.com/rocketshipNetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable so...
2021-08-0527 min
Rocketship.fmOuter Space Tow Trucks with Rogue.spaceToday we welcome Jeromy Grimmet of Rogue.Space to discuss their evolution into a space tow truck company and what the future holds for private companies in space.***This episode is brought to you by:Vidyard: The Top Video Tool for SaaS Marketing and Sales http://vidyard.com/rocketshipNetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to netsuite.com/rocketship today.Blinkist: Rocketship.fm is now on Blinkist! Listen to 12 minute episodes with no ads...
2021-07-2933 min
Rocketship.fmWorkplace Confessions with Jason Feifer, Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur magazine: "My boss can’t write a simple email" & "I ghosted a company, and I don’t feel bad"Today we welcome Jason Feifer, Editor in Chief of Entrepreneur magazine, to the show to help us make sense of our final two confessions of Season 10! We hope you've enjoyed this season as much as we have.***This episode is brought to you by:NetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to netsuite.com/rocketship today.Blinkist: Rocketship.fm is now on Blinkist! Listen to 12 minute episodes with no ads! Get seven days free when you check...
2021-07-2226 min
Rocketship.fmWorkplace Confessions with Dan Shapiro the CEO of Glowforge: "My side hustle turned out to be a lot of work" & "Sometimes, I feel like Bill Lumberg"Today we welcome Dan Shapiro, the CEO of Glowforge. Perviously he was the CTO of Photobucket, sold Sparkbuy to Google and has launched two of the largest Kickstarter campaigns in history with Glowforge and Robot Turtles.***This episode is brought to you by:NetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to netsuite.com/rocketship today.Blinkist: Rocketship.fm is now on Blinkist! Listen to 12 minute episodes with no ads! Get seven days free when you check out...
2021-07-2024 min
Rocketship.fmWorkplace Confessions with Thor Ernstsson of Strata: "Am I crazy for wanting to build this?" & "Can somebody tell me when we’ve found product market fit, please?"This week we welcome Thor Ernstsson of Strata.cc to help us with more product and founder focused confessions around product market fit.***This episode is brought to you by:NetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to netsuite.com/rocketship today.Blinkist: Rocketship.fm is now on Blinkist! Listen to 12 minute episodes with no ads! Get seven days free when you check out Blinkist.Indeed: Indeed is the job site that makes hiring as...
2021-07-1523 min
Rocketship.fmWorkplace Confessions with Amy Hood of Hoodzpah: "I never planned on this" & "Can’t handle the sweatshop"This week we welcome the one and only Amy Hood of Hoodzpah who is a world-renowned agency with clients such as Disney, Target, ESPN, Redbull, & Nike. We have confessions all about freelancing, knowing your worth, pricing and much more.***This episode is brought to you by:NetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to netsuite.com/rocketship today.Blinkist: Rocketship.fm is now on Blinkist! Listen to 12 minute episodes with no ads! Get seven days free when...
2021-07-1325 min
Rocketship.fmWorkplace Confessions with Lolita Taub: "My friends don’t know I’m an angel investor" & "Career speed bump"This week we welcome Lolita Taub, the cofounder and general partner at the Community Fund. The Community Fund is a $5 million early-stage fund that invests in community-driven companies through an investment partner team. Lolita helps us sort through todays confessions from someone who is a secret angel investor (and wants to keep it that way) and someone who's career hit a speed bump due to Covid.***This episode is brought to you by:NetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. G...
2021-07-0824 min
Rocketship.fmWorkplace Confessions with Christie Kim of Persona: "We look great to the outside world, but really -- we’re just a mess" & "Sometimes, being a mentor overwhelms me"This week we welcome Christie Kim, the COO of Persona to the show to help us answer some more burning confessions from listeners. Today we have a confession from someone working at the startup that looks great on the outside, but internally things are a mess. Plus someone who doesn't feel so comfortable being a mentor even though their resume says they have more than enough experience to help others.***This episode is brought to you by:NetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your...
2021-07-0623 min
Rocketship.fmWorkplace Confessions with Hossein Azari, CEO of Cmorq: "Trying to get ahead" & "NFTs?"Is Crypto the answer to all of your money woes? Probably not. We bringing special guest Hossein Azari to help us answer two more listener questions focused on Crypto currencies and NFTs.***This episode is brought to you by:NetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to netsuite.com/rocketship today.Blinkist: Rocketship.fm is now on Blinkist! Listen to 12 minute episodes with no ads! Get seven days free when you check out Blinkist.Indeed...
2021-07-0123 min
Rocketship.fmWorkplace Confessions with Justin Shriber, CMO at People.ai: "I hide things from our sales team" & "We have fake advisors at our startup"Today on the show we welcome Justin Shriber, the CMO at People.ai, to the show to help us work through two new confessions "I hide things from our sales team" & "We have fake advisors at our startup"***This episode is brought to you by:NetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to netsuite.com/rocketship today.Blinkist: Rocketship.fm is now on Blinkist! Listen to 12 minute episodes with no ads! Get seven days free when you...
2021-06-2424 min
Rocketship.fmWorkplace Confessions with Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI: "My friends think I’m a millionaire, but I’m actually struggling" & "I really need to get away from my family"We welcome Lloyed Lobo, Co-founder & President, of Boast.AI to help us sort through two brand new confessions. Our first is from a founder who's friends think they're doing really well, but they're in fact struggling and not sure how to let everyone know. The second is from someone who can't wait to get back into the office to get some real heads-down time.***This episode is brought to you by:NetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to...
2021-06-2222 min
Rocketship.fmWorkplace Confessions with Anna Ratala CEO & co-founder of Zvook.co: "I miss taking work-related vacations" & "I got my product-MBA from podcasts like yours"Today we welcome Anna Ratala, CEO & co-founder of Zvook.co, to the show to discuss two more confessions. We're all sick of being at home and some of us are missing work trips for various reasons, but this confessor is looking forward to a little break from their family. Another listener asks, what is the value of an MBA?***This episode is brought to you by:NetSuite: NetSuite by Oracle is a scalable solution to run all of your key back office operations. Go to netsuite.com/rocketship today.
2021-06-1722 min
The Chatting Table With RG & Buses&MoreEpisode 2: FAKE PIGGY GAMESRocketship Gaming goes explores a few FAKE PIGGY GAMES. They don't make sense at all. Does he make it out alive??--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rocketshipgaming/message
2021-03-1310 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Journeys: Hey!Hey! a new email platform, many opinions...and it's creators, Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson (known to the internet as DHH, the creator of Ruby on Rails) and the Basecamp team, have even more.Hey! launched just a couple weeks ago to a flurry of controversy. From it's firm stance on tracking pixels (perceived as spy devices) to it's pre-launch fight with Apple over revenue splits, Hey! is probably the most exciting thing to happen to email since the launch of gmail over 16 years ago.Today we take you through the ideation and launch of...
2020-07-0930 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Journeys: Live from Tomorrow!How did Matt Hooper build a company singing about Blockchain? Today we explore the product journey of Live from Tomorrow! a live show that's been running in New York City for the last two years and has recently been turned into a podcast as an epic musical comedy about innovation in tech and business.There's really nothing like it out there. Recorded in the style of a cast album, the show seamlessly combines studio recordings with live performances and interviews. The five-episode, two-act inaugural season tells the extraordinary story of our lead, Matt Hooper, as he launches...
2020-07-0233 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Journeys: Walker & CoWalker & Company Brands, a startup making health and beauty products for people of color, was acquired by consumer giant Procter & Gamble in 2018.The company was founded in2013 by Tristan Walker, who previously led business development for Foursquare, and who aimed to create products that would better serve the needs of people of color with coarse or curly hair. Walker & Co. started out with its Bevel shaving products for men, then launched Form, a collection of hair products for women.Today we bring you the Journey of Tristan Walker in building Walker & Co and taking the comp...
2020-06-2527 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Journeys: Backstage CapitalHamilton founded Backstage Capitol, a venture capital firm, in 2015, when she was homeless. The firm seeks to address funding disparities in the technology industry by investing in companies started by undervalued but high-potential entrepreneurs who are women, people of color, and/or LGBTQ. To date, Backstage Capital has raised more than $10 million and invested in more than 130 startup companies.This episode is brought to you by:Digital Ocean is a cloud provider that makes it easy for entrepreneurs and startups to deploy and scale web applications with no issues and unplanned costs. Get started for...
2020-06-1824 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Journeys: ShiftShift is an online, peer-to-peer, marketplace for buying and selling used cars. Founded in 2014, Shift is an American company based in San Francisco’s Mission District. As of 2019, the company offers its services in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose and San Diego, California as well as Portland, Oregon.The leadership team includes Co-CEOs George Arison and Toby Russell, also co-founders of Taxi Magic; Sean Foy chief operating officer; and Christian Ohler chief technology officer.Shift was born out of a problem that the founders understood first hand and today we bring you their story....
2020-05-2825 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Journeys: PayPalPayPal was originally established by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek in December 1998 as Confinity, a company that developed security software for handheld devices. In March 2000, Confinity merged with X.com, an online banking company founded by Elon Musk.After watching PayPal become the premier choice of Internet auction shoppers, online marketplace giant eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion in October 2002, then in 2015 PayPal was spun off into an independent company, but it continued to be used by eBay.While the companies history was often rocky it's effects will ripple for generations from the impact o...
2020-05-2132 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Journeys: Earth Class MailEarth Class Mail was founded over 16 years ago with the ambitious mission of “taking over the post office of the world." They were one of the first startups to launch on national television with their own slickly produced 8 part TV series focused on their CEO Ron Wieners fund-raising journey. But the journey hasn't always been smooth, they company was acquired in 2014 through a Bankruptcy resolution and then again in 2016. Today the product and team appear stronger than ever, publicly reporting 20% growth in 2018.We'll take you through their massive rise, eventual fall and a complete rebuild in a st...
2020-05-1426 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Journeys: InstagramThe story of Instagram’s explosive rise reads like a Silicon Valley fairy tale, with the company gaining staggering momentum within a few short months. The app itself took only eight weeks to develop before launching on the iPhone, and within a year and a half Facebook had acquired the company for $1 billion in cash and stock. But like all good tales, the process involved many twists and turns, failures and successes, conflicts and synergies, and a dose of fortuitous happenstance. Want an ad free experience? Subscribe today at glow.fm/rocketship and get a pr...
2020-05-0729 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Failures: MoviePassThe stock was tanking, and the company kept hemorrhaging cash. Investors sued. Some users even filed a suit. It was a losing battle from the start but what really went wrong at the beloved startup MoviePass. Today we tell the story of MoviePass's rise and ultimate fall on the season finale of Rocketship.fm's Product Failures.We've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually, and get access to exclusive bonus shows of Rocketship, previews of new seasons, and an ad free version of every episode of the podcast. Check it out...
2020-04-1630 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Failures: It's not you, it's your teamToday we discuss another type of failure that is all too common, especially in young companies - team failure. We talk with Latif Nanji, the founder and CEO of Roadmonk, about his first startup Pokerspace.com and the many mistakes they made trying to move in the same direction as a team, but often failing miserably.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually, and get access to exclusive bonus shows of Rocketship, previews of new seasons, and an ad free version of every episode of the...
2020-04-0934 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Failures: BlockbusterIn 2000, Reed Hastings, the founder of a fledgling company called Netflix, flew to Dallas to propose a partnership to Blockbuster CEO John Antioco and his team. The idea was that Netflix would run Blockbuster’s brand online and Antioco’s firm would promote Netflix in its stores. Hastings got laughed out of the room.Blockbuster went bankrupt in 2010 and Netflix is now a $28 billion dollar company, about ten times what Blockbuster was worth. So what happened that led Blockbuster's demise? We explore that and more today on the show.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched t...
2020-03-1931 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Failures: AudibleFrom creating unsafe driving conditions to aggravating spouses across the globe, todays failure is a lesson in what happens when your team lacks diversity, especially of lived experiences that help build empathy for your customers. Today, we take you behind the scenes of Audibles iOS7 redesign that overhauled the design of the app, but forgot to take several key use-cases into consideration.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually, and get access to exclusive bonus shows of Rocketship, previews of new seasons, and an ad free...
2020-03-1217 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Failures: American AirlinesOn September 11, 2001 two American Airlines airplanes were hijacked. One was flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center and the other crashed into a field on it's way to the White House killing everyone onboard. As people scrambled to find out what happened to their loved ones, the American Airlines automated phone systems failed as they refused to included what is known as the Mayday codes.Today we talk with Blade Kotelly, who built the automated phone system for several Airlines, including some affected by the September 11 hijackings. His systems didn't fail that morning...
2020-03-0520 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Failures: The Psychology of Failure with Jerry ColonnaWe've been talking a lot about well known product failures, but at this point in the series, we're going to take a little pause. Today, we remember that there are very real people behind these failures. These people have feelings and the failures they’ve experienced, they’ve probably affected them in different ways.Today we sit down with Jerry Colonna. Jerry is an American venture capitalist and professional coach who played a prominent part in the early development of Silicon Valley. He is known as the CEO whisperer and is famous for being Alex Blumbergs executive coac...
2020-02-2726 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Failures: ColorRaising $41 million dollars before launch, Color should have been an instant hit, but instead met a swift demise. When it launched, the application had around 1 million downloads. By September 2011, the service had a little under 100,000 active users. Founded by serial entrepreneur Bill Nguyen and successful operator, Peter Pham, Color had one of the best teams in the business.However, in the weeks following Color's initial launch, controversy surrounded the startup's $41 million funding and mixed reviews on the product. The initial launch left users confused with the application's user interface and purpose. Its initial rating in the App...
2020-02-2022 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Failures: Google+Google+ was an ambitious project to take down the social networking giant Facebook, unfortunately we all know how it ended. What went wrong along the way that prevented a company like Google, with seemingly endless resources and internet reach, fail to create a product users actually wanted to use?BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually, and get access to exclusive bonus shows of Rocketship, previews of new seasons, and an ad free version of every episode of the podcast. Check it out today by clicking...
2020-02-1325 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Failures: eBayIn the early 2000's eBay was in direct competition with Amazon but they had very different methodologies when approaching the market. Today we dive into some of the mistakes eBay made in this time where they caught themselves focusing on the wrong metrics and ultimately the wrong side of the market. These mistakes ultimately led to the huge differences in the trajectory of where these companies are today. We talk with Ben Foster, the CPO at GoCanvas, about his time at eBay from 2001-2005 where he lead the "findings" team internally.BIG NEWSWe've officially l...
2020-02-0620 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Failures: TurboTaxIt was November of 2014 and Brian Crofts was preparing for a meeting with two senior executives at Intuit. One was his boss, CeCe Morken, who ran Intuit’s Professional Tax (ProTax) business line, the $422 million business that sold tax preparation software to professional accountants. The other was Sasan Goodarzi, who ran Intuit’s $1.8 billion TurboTax business (TurboTax) that sold software to consumers. Crofts had devoted three years to a new product-- TurboTax PersonalPro -- that was a stepping stone in between these two business lines. The company’s leadership had decided it was an appropriate time for a major...
2020-01-3022 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Failures: WebvanBusiness schools around the nation study Webvan’s overly ambitious rush to the biggest IPO to date in Silicon Valley, as a prime example of what to avoid doing while scaling.While it’s true that the impatience to go public helped steer Webvan off a cliff, the once darling company made three critical, but often overlooked mistakes when it came to revolutionizing home grocery deliveries. We'll talk with Ben Foster about his experience leading product teams at Webvan.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually, and...
2020-01-2322 min
Rocketship.fmProduct Failures: Skeletons in Our ClosetEveryone fails at some point in their career. Small failures, big failures. We're going to cover them all on this season of Rocketship. Today Michael Sacca and Mike Belsito are going to discuss some of their own product failures - from eFunneral, to Crew to Brandisty they've learned a lot from these mistakes.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually, and get access to exclusive bonus shows of Rocketship, previews of new seasons, and an ad free version of every episode of the podcast. Check it...
2020-01-1630 min
Rocketship.fm400 Episodes 😱Right before we kick off Season 8 of Rocketship, we wanted to go back and look at some of our favorite episodes of the past 6 years. From relationships to product love, the history of the baseball cap to the first ever e-commerce website on the internet today we have something for in this episode.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually, and get access to exclusive bonus shows of Rocketship, previews of new seasons, and an ad free version of every episode of the podcast. Check it...
2020-01-0932 min
Rocketship.fmThe implications of the surveillance economyWith companies such as Google and Facebook we are trading our data in exchange for the benefits of their product, is the solution to stop giving big companies our information, or is it about recognizing how companies are using our data and making a conscience decision of what information we give away? We tackle these questions and more on this week's episode.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually, and get access to exclusive bonus shows of Rocketship, previews of new seasons, and an ad free...
2020-01-0224 min
Rocketship.fmStop that A/B Test (and do this instead)Today we talk with Ben Foster the Chief Product Officer at GoCanvas and former product manager at Ebay. Ben is a wealth of Product knowledge and experience and today we discuss the topic of A/B testing and how he's evolved his focus to be vision driven so that he doesn't miss the big opportunities to solve customer problems. This was a hard learned lesson and we hear about his experience A/B testing features with moderate success and what caused him to shift if focus.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast...
2019-12-1921 min
Rocketship.fmBlind SpotsWe all think we know everything there is to know about our customers, but data shows that we often know a surprising little amount about who our customers really are. We tend to get complacent and continue building for the personas that we think use our product, but is there a better way?We talk with Laura Klein, author of UX for Lean Startups and Build Better Products, about methods for better user research practices we can all start doing today.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today f...
2019-12-0526 min
Rocketship.fmPowerful Product PositioningPositioning can make or break a new product, yet it rarely gets the attention it deserves. On todays episode, April Dunford the CEO at Ambient Strategy, outlines a product positioning process that will shine a spotlight on your product’s best features. We will also give re-positioning examples and show the impact on the overall business that resulted from that shift in context.You can check out April's book, Obviously Awesome, to dive deeper.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually, and get access to...
2019-10-3129 min
Rocketship.fmHow Sendlane created huge growth through user-centered designMarketing automation platform, Sendlane, hit a plateau in both revenue and ideas until they tried using user-centered design to unlock growth. The solution was a surprising effective one that helped to set their roadmap moving forward.Today we talk with Eric Weiss about his experience implementing user-centered design in practice and how it changed the trajectory of the business.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually, and get access to exclusive bonus shows of Rocketship, previews of new seasons, and an ad free version...
2019-10-2424 min
Rocketship.fmWhat type of Product Manager are you?Catherine Ulrich, a Managing Director of FirstMark Capital, invests in a broad range of enterprise and consumer start-ups. She has a deep passion for and expertise in health and wellness, AI, and behavior change. Prior to joining FirstMark, she was the Chief Product Officer at Shutterstock (NYSE: SSTK) where she was responsible for product strategy and execution across all of Shutterstock’s offerings and brands including the company’s move into machine learning/computer vision and creative editing tools. She was also the first Chief Product Officer at Weight Watchers (NYSE: WTW), responsible for their global digital and retail expe...
2019-10-1726 min
Rocketship.fmHow Airbnb approaches SEOSEO, or Search Engine Optimization, comes in many forms. There’s the classic blog post optimization where one would write a piece of content and try to get the right combination of usefulness, keywords, and length to see if Google will rank it high enough to get discovered. but that’s not what Tommy Griffith was doing at Airbnb when he led their SEO team from 2013 - 2017.Today, we take you behind the scenes of the SEO team at Airbnb. How did they approach such a massive problem? What worked? What didn't? That and more on today's epis...
2019-10-1022 min
Rocketship.fmThe Best Product Advice We've Ever Received....Over the past 6 years we've had some amazing conversations with product people and entrepreneurs. Today we're going to bring you some of our favorite bits of product knowledge to help you with everything from diversity, recruiting, tough product decisions, understanding business goals and more.You'll hear from some of our favorite guests like former Facebook PM Alison Go, Jobs to be Done architect Bob Moesta, VP of Product & Strategy at Box Jeetu Patel and even Adii Pienaar.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually...
2019-10-0326 min
Rocketship.fmProduct VisionWe explore what it really means to be a product-driven company. More than anything, it's an exercise in restraint. Don't just build because you can, or because technology allows, but because you're advancing a larger vision. Laura Roeder of Edgar shares just what that means for their company, and how it's helped them follow a guiding light to success.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually, and get access to exclusive bonus shows of Rocketship, previews of new seasons, and an ad free version of every...
2019-09-2619 min
Rocketship.fmProduct-Led GrowthWe are in the middle of a massive shift in the way people use and buy software.It’s been well over a decade since Salesforce brought software to the cloud. Apple put digital experiences in people’s pockets back in 2009 with the first iPhone. Blake talks about how we’re in “The End User Era” -- which is a new era that we’re now living in. We may be using applications for business purposes, but even those applications are adopted not because of some procurement manager signing a contract, but adopted from the bottom up within an org...
2019-09-1925 min
Rocketship.fmPerfecting Product MarketingProduct Marketing. The subtle art of describing your product in a way that excites everyone around you. This isn’t just for entrepreneurs pitching investors, this is for product managers and product leaders to inspire their teams to push themselves to build the best possible solution.We walk through examples from Figure One, Facebook and Sono’s with us as we attempt to break down what makes a powerful product description and what are the elements you need to improve yours.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for...
2019-09-1218 min
Rocketship.fmBuilding Products People WantJobs to be done will change the way you think about product. It will change the way you approach user personas and influence your product decision process. It is one of the most important developments in product thinking in our time, so today we're going to dive right in.In this episode we talk with Jeetu Patel of Box, Bob Moesta co-creator of the Jobs to be done framework, Benedikt Lehnert of Wunderlist (now Microsoft) and Eric White.The theory of jobs to be done was developed in part as a complement to the theory...
2019-09-0517 min
Rocketship.fmDeath of a Product FeatureDaria Axelrod Marmer, a Product Lead at Hubspot wrote about Killing it by Killing Features and we explore that more today. It's never fun to sunset a feature we worked so hard to bring to life, but sometimes growth comes from creating focus and removing unused features to either build something new or take a new approach to solve the problem they were meant to solve.BIG NEWSWe've officially launched the Rocketship Premium Podcast feed! Join today for $5/month or $40 annually, and get access to exclusive bonus shows of Rocketship, previews of new seasons, a...
2019-08-2923 min
Rocketship.fmShape Up with Ryan Singer of BasecampRyan Singer and the Basecamp team have developed their own methodology for product planning. For one, they don't do waterfall or agile or scrum. For two, they don’t line walls with Post-it notes. For three, they don’t do daily stand ups, design sprints, development sprints, or anything remotely tied to a metaphor that includes being tired and worn out at the end. No backlogs, no Kanban, no velocity tracking, none of that.What they do instead is six week product builds followed by two weeks of cooling. Their leadership team decides how long they want to s...
2019-08-2240 min
Rocketship.fmMental Models for Product LeadersMental models are simple expressions of complex processes or relationships. These models are accumulated over time by an individual and used to make faster and better decisions. Today to explore Mental Models for Product Leadership and how to use them with your team every day.This episode is also brought to you by Airtable, which is the all-in-one platform for product managers. Rocketship listeners can receive $50 in credit by signing up at Airtable.com/rocketship.This episode is also brought to you by DigitalOcean, the cloud platform that makes it easy for startups to launch...
2019-08-1521 min
Rocketship.fmAchieving Deep WorkDeep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It's a skill, because of our modern times, that is becoming increasingly more difficult to achieve. Today we outline some helpful practices for staying focused and achieving deeper concentration on the work that matters.This episode is also brought to you by Airtable, which is the all-in-one platform for product managers. Rocketship listeners can receive $50 in credit by signing up at Airtable.com/rocketship.This episode is also brought to you by DigitalOcean, the cloud platform that makes it easy for...
2019-08-0818 min
Rocketship.fmIn Bezos we trustToday we bring you the story of eBay and Amazon in the early 2000s, and how their fierce competition for market share came down to two very different product approaches. There's a winner, a loser and lots of product lessons in-between. We'll also share something that Jeff Bezos does to this day to ensure the customer is always represented in product meetings.This episode is brought to you by Gusto, making payroll, benefits, and HR easy for modern small businesses. Rocketship listeners get three months free at gusto.com/rocketship.This episode is also brought...
2019-08-0121 min
Rocketship.fmMental Models for Product ManagersA mental model is any concept that helps explain, analyze, or navigate the world. As product managers, our mental models drive our decision-making, the way we communicate and collaborate with others, and how we prioritize.Today we explore some essential mental models for Product Managers. From opportunity cost to confirmation bias to Semmelweis reflex and even key failure. There are countless mental models that are essential for Product Managers to understand.This episode is brought to you by Gusto, making payroll, benefits, and HR easy for modern small businesses. Rocketship listeners get three months free...
2019-07-2529 min
Rocketship.fmCharlie Munger's Mental ModelsMental models are how we understand the world. Not only do they shape what we think and how we understand but they shape the connections and opportunities that we see. Mental models are how we simplify complexity, why we consider some things more relevant than others, and how we reason.A mental model is simply a representation of how something works. We cannot keep all of the details of the world in our brains, so we use models to simplify the complex into understandable and organizable chunks.Today we explore some of Charlie Munger's famous...
2019-07-1822 min
Rocketship.fmData Driven Product DevelopmentData is powerful because it is concrete. For many entrepreneurs and product people, empirical data can trump everything else – and it’s been an important tool in helping startups solve problems in new and innovative ways.In today's episode we talk with Richard White, the CEO of UserVoice, and what it means to be "data-informed" and how to better use data inside your organization.This episode is also brought to you by Airtable, which is the all-in-one platform for product managers. Rocketship listeners can receive $50 in credit by signing up at Airtable.com/rocketship.Th...
2019-07-1126 min
Rocketship.fmBuild vs BuyHave you ever found yourself in the middle of where of those projects where you just go, I wish we’d seen how this would end at the beginning of the project? Often times this is the result of a build vs buy decision gone wrong. Today we discuss recognizing what isn’t your core competency. This can be difficult to admit for organizations, but getting this right could save you a ton of time, money and headache.Balancing your company’s immediate needs with its long-term growth is both paramount and challenging – especially if your business is a sta...
2019-07-0415 min
Rocketship.fmThe History of Product ManagementToday we explore the history of the Product Manager from it's early ideation by Neil McElroy to it's growth at Hewlett-Packard thru it's maturation at Microsoft and into today. We talk with former Microsoft Project Manager, Ellen Chisa, Former Microsoft Engineer (and 55th hire), Mark Zbikowski and Matt LeMay, the Author of Product Management in Practice, about this evolution over the past 80 years.For Neil McElroy the Brand Men were essentially his manifesto on what would become a product manager today. Their responsibilities ranged from tracking sales to managing the product, advertising and promotions. They were to “tak...
2019-06-2721 min
Rocketship.fmStorytelling for Product PeopleConnie Kwan walks us through her philosophy on storytelling for Product people, teaches us the essential elements of product storytelling and gives relatable use cases.This episode is brought to you by Gusto, making payroll, benefits, and HR easy for modern small businesses. Rocketship listeners get three months free at Gusto.com/rocketship.This episode is also brought to you by Airtable, which is the all-in-one platform for product managers. Rocketship listeners can receive $50 in credit by signing up at Airtable.com/rocketship.This episode is also brought to you by DigitalOcean, the...
2019-06-2021 min
Rocketship.fmHow Adobe transformed itself into a $135 billion dollar SASS companyAdobe's transition into a SASS company wasn't easy. It took two painful years of losses to transition their entire business from one-time upfront pricing to a monthly subscription. For a publically traded company, this could have been the death of them. But long-term thinking and well-executed plan set them up for success into the foreseeable future.This episode is also brought to you by Airtable, which is the all-in-one platform for product managers. Rocketship listeners can receive $50 in credit by signing up at Airtable.com/rocketship.This episode is also brought to you by DigitalOcean...
2019-06-1319 min
Rocketship.fmPM to VC with Hunter WalkToday we got a chance to sit down with Hunter Walk and discuss his career, what he looks for in founders and products that he’s investing in and, perhaps the most interesting, how he analysis someone’s career path when looking to invest in them… and it’s not exactly what you would expect.Hunter Walk is a founder and partner at Homebrew. He also has extensive experience in product development and played a key role in making YouTube one of the internet's largest websites.This episode is brought to you by Gusto, making payroll...
2019-06-0619 min
Rocketship.fm - Business ExploredBuilding Entrepreneurial CommunitiesJay Chernikoff, founder of co-working space(s), DeskHub, talks with us about building entrepreneurial communities and changing the way even established, large organizations work. **If there's a DeskHub location in your city, mention this episode of the Rocketship Podcast for $100 off your first month.
2016-02-1034 min
Rocketship.fm - Business ExploredEntrepreneurship for CouplesThomas Knoll, serial entrepreneur and personal advisor, talks with us about his new venture, Knoll Consulting. He teamed up with his wife, a licensed psychotherapist to create a 6-week course designed to help entrepreneurs and their partners find a variety of new ways of communicating more effectively with one another (including things like practicing fights before they happen)! There's a special discount for Rocketship listeners - use code: ROCKETSHIP at checkout and get $100 off the course price.
2015-11-0337 min