Managing Your Startup Options – Karthik Suresh on The Product Experience

Everyone – or so we're told – has the dream of joining or founding a hot startup and making their fortune, all while really proving their product chops. Though he's now a Product Manager at Facebook, Karthik Suresh co-founded Altrest and grew Craft.io from an early stage. He joins us on the podcast to share some great advice about working at early-stage startups and what to look for in terms of compensation packages.

In this episode, sponsored by Pendo, listen to learn about:

• Product Management in startups vs. big corporations
• Finding product/market fit
• Using data and metrics

Quote of the Episode

[Working in a startup] you need to be really mission driven and impact driven, in the sense that you’re so passionate and you’re really thinking about: "why doesn’t this product exist in the world today?"

Links mentioned in this episode

• Follow Karthik on Twitter and LinkedIn
• Craft.io – Human Capital and Operating Metrics for Companies
• Equity Management Solutions at Carta
• Seedcamp
• Facebook

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Our Hosts

The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver.

Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She's currently Head of Innovation at Go Compare and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She's worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol (which now has 800+ members!) and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.

Randy is a product consultant and coach who has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. A recovering music journalist and editor, he launched Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, and has worked across sectors including museums and arts groups, online education, media and entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. Randy's book, What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19 is out now, with all profits going to COVID-19 relief efforts.