Business
Hey everybody! Today, we have Connie Kwan. Connie is a B2B expert with multiple leadership roles in hyper growth companies. She is the Chief Storyteller at Product Maestro, and Head of Product at Atlassian’s Marketplace. Building a startup is hard but there is an ecosystem of people willing to help that makes it an enjoyable experience In this episode, Connie shares her career and business journey which includes her experiences in different hyper growth companies. She also talks about her core company building skill and how she used it to overcome the cash gap and sales gap in the business. Moving forward, Connie and I talk about how to avoid the common death traps in product management. We touch on concepts like lean startup, building an MVP, product building and marketing, as Connie stated, “There is more balance towards build more versus sell more first.” Connie shares her insights for investors who are looking for hyper efficient capital businesses, and then for founders about cultural readiness and product understanding. Join us in this awesome conversation about product building, product management and Connie’s Product Maestro. Episode Quotes "We need to keep our spirits up, and that is very important, because we can't work effectively without that" "Having a positive attitude help people see an example and feel that energy to continue to be positive" "'One brick at a time' is the most valuable values for me" "If you've been persistent over time, and then you take a step back, you will see that it got built" "Don't get confused by the bad feeling that you have in the moment that you're not making any progress because you are actually making progress" "I think there is definite balance towards let's build more versus let's sell more first" "There is not a huge benefit for startups to having a lot of diversity especially in the early stage" "Building a startup is hard but there is an ecosystem of people willing to help that it is an incredibly an enjoyable experience" Listen to Learn 01:36 Getting to know Connie Kwan - career and business journey 03:38 Connie's core company building skill 04:45 Make-it-or-break-it moments as a founder 09:00 How did you overcome those business challenges? 10:02 Most valuable advice, and how did it change your perspective 13:30 Advise for founders to avoid the common death traps in product building 15:52 Connie's take about the concept of lean startup and building an MVP 20:40 Advise for investors looking for hyper capital efficient businesses 23:58 Advise for founders about cultural readiness and customer understanding 27:41 Non-Rapid Fire Questions - fun, off balance questions 38:03 What is Product Maestro? 41:20 Parting thoughts and website links