The Most Critical Hire for Series A Startups

A Product Leader is the most critical hire a Series A backed startup will ever make. If you don’t believe us, believe Dave McClure.

Dave McClure is an entrepreneur and angel investor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He founded the business accelerator 500 Startups, serving as CEO until his resignation in 2017. Soon after, he started Practical Venture Capital, a new venture capital fund that continues to work with companies previously funded through 500 Startups.

Dave was once asked by an early stage Founder how he evaluates a product idea to determine whether he would invest. These were his answers:

• Is there a shipping product?
• Are there users or customers?
• What’s the product experience like? Is it easy to activate or engage?
• How many users or customers are active and keep coming back
• What does retention look like? (subscription/usage)
• Are the unit economics cash flow positive, or can they be in the near future?
• How does the business plan to grow?
• What channels are currently working, scalable and profitable?
• Is there a path to sustainable, scalable growth or sustainable, scalable revenue?
• Will the business have downstream investors?

It is important to note that most of these questions connect directly to product. This is especially important given the movement towards PLG business models, where the idea is that the product sells itself. This is why making the right Head of Product hire is one of the most critical decisions any Founder will make.

Boston-based founder of Product Culture, Bruce McCarthy, shared his perspective on product leadership after a venture raise and how important product focus and prioritization are. Both skills are really hard to execute, especially if there’s lots of money in the bank.

One thing Bruce suggests is to look for leaders who exemplify these skills. He spends a lot of time working with teams on focus. To quote Bruce,

“Create a great, big, huge list of everything you could or should pursue, but cherry-pick 10 ideas — the ones that are great, not just good — to pursue first. You’re not saying no to the other ones; you’re just focusing on the best, most strategic of these first.”

Hiring a Product leader with focus, leadership, and the right experiences to build and run a product team is critical for success — it’s also a hard thing to get right.

As leaders in product management recruitment for Series A backed startups, we’ve seen it all and can help guide Founders to the profile of candidates they need based on their business and growth goals.

Are you looking to hire a Product Leader for your organization? Book a consult with our team today to discuss your talent needs.