Rocketship.fm

We talked with Arlan Hamilton, theFounder & Managing Partner of Backstage Capital. Backstage Capital has invested more than $2M in 50+ companies led by underrepresented founders.  Arlan is a venture capital fund manager, but she got her start publishing the internationally distributed indie magazine INTERLUDE, and toured extensively as a live music production professional, she enters the venture investing world from an unconventional path. Arlan is dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are of color, women, and/or LGBT.  We discuss diversity in tech, her story to becoming an unlikely VC and her advice for founders on how to stay focused and prioritize.  *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, pl

Love isn’t rational. It doesn’t always make sense. But when love is in the air, nothing can come between you and a public tweet.  Today we talk to people who’ve professed their love, publicly, for products they love. We discuss why they love the products they love, and what about these companies and brands gets them so excited. We dove into tech brands like Slack and Intercom as well as roll on deodorant brand Phresh and personal fashion brand Stitch Fix. Huge thanks to our guests today: Lindsey Smith: https://twitter.com/LindseySmithHHC Jordi Romero: https://twitter.com/jordiromero Natalie Gerke: https://twitter.com/Ngerke Alys Gagnon: https://twitter.com/AlysJ *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're lis

Blade Kotelly is a senior lecturer at MIT and the leader of the advanced concepts lab at Sonos. We talk with Blade about how he defines the problem he solves at Sonos, and how to articulate that at an emotion level using design thinking.  At Sonos he is driving the process to determine what experiences Sonos can and should build next. Researching trends in the technology landscape, customer behavior, music creators, and Sonos partners, and creating and testing advanced concepts. At MIT he teaches students principals of design-thinking, how to articulate designs, critique designs, create emotionally and intellectually compelling presentations, create a point-brand, conduct usability testing and learn to apply design-thinking to all aspects of their lives. Blade also tells us about the audio software he designed that was used by United on 9/11. A fascinating, and heartbreaking look at how design thinking and product management has real life effects and consequences. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate 

Mistakes. We all make them. We all learn from them. From a food delivery startup who's users couldn't find their menu, to Amazon's redesign of Audible and even an emergency support system on 9/11, today we bring you mistakes Product Mangers made, and how, in some cases, they fixed them.  Stories from Melissa Perry, Alison Go Product Manger at Facebook and Blade Kotelly Leader of Experience Strategy at Sonos.  *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Elements and Freelance to Founder.

We talk with Seth Godin about his view of the 10,000 hour rule, his own concept behind achieving greatness, The Dip, and his personal journey to success.  After leaving Spinnaker in 1986, he used $20,000 in savings to found Seth Godin Productions, primarily a book packaging business, out of a studio apartment in New York City. He then met Mark Hurst and founded Yoyodyne. After a few years, Godin sold the book packaging business to his employees and focused his efforts on Yoyodyne, where he promoted the concept of permission marketing. Yoyodyne, launched in 1995, used contests, online games, and scavenger hunts to market companies to participating users. In August 1996, Flatiron Partners invested $4 million in Yoyodyne in return for a 20% stake. At Yoyodyne, Godin published Permission Marketing: Turning strangers into friends and friends into customers. In 1998, he sold Yoyodyne to Yahoo! for about $30 million and became Yahoo's vice president of direct marketing. In March 2006, Godin launched Squidoo. In July

Ty Ahmad-Taylor is the VP of Product Marketing at Facebook. Ty has worked in product for over 20 years and has two acquisitions under his belt. At THX, he led the media and consumer-electronics company into new sectors. Prior to that, he held roles including vp of Smart TV services at Samsung, founder and CEO of FanFeedr and Senior VP of product development and strategy at Viacom. Ty talks with us about leading large product teams, helping individuals growth under his leadership and how his entrepreneurial journey has shaped his view of product. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business

Jobs 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 of disruptive innovation. But disruption theory doesn’t tell you how to create products and services that customers want to buy. Jobs to be done theory does. It transforms our understanding of customer choice in a way that no amount of data ever could, because it gets at the causal driver behind a purchase. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for mor

Ellen Chisa, a former Product Manager at Microsoft and current CEO of a stealth product focused startup, talks to us about the history of product management, how she learned about the role at Microsoft and what lessons product managers should take away today.  Ellen is one of the few individuals who has worked in product her entire career. It's a unique perspective as most product managers have generally held other positions within an organization. This led Ellen to research the history of Product Management, and how it evolved from the 1930's "Brand Men" into the important role it is today.  *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomer

Marketing executive and serial entrepreneur, Everette Taylor, talks to us about being homeless in high school to becoming one of the most sought after marketing minds in todays tech world. When it comes to marketing, Everette Taylor knows his stuff. The Los Angeles-based entrepreneur is the founder and CEO of PopSocial, co-founder of marketing community GrowthHackers, and the Chief Marketing Officer for the transportation startup Skurt. His journey wasn’t always easy. At 17, Taylor, he was forced to live out of his car – which didn’t even run. Determined to rise above, he did some odd jobs for cash before enrolling at the only college he applied to: Virginia Tech. At 19, he started a small entertainment company that would arrange parties and social events. Just a few years later, he befriended entrepreneur and investor Sean Ellis, who helped him break into the tech industry and partnered with him to launch GrowthHackers. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distribute

Today 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 “take full responsibility” for the brands implementation of advertising and sales and take a ‘huge weight’ off of the sales managers who were both ideating and implementing growth strategies. Bill Hewlett and David Packard interpreted the Brand Man ethos as putting decision making as close as possible to the customer, and making the product manager the voice of the customer internally. In the b

Today we talk with Ash Maurya, the creator of the Lean Canvas and most recently the author of Scaling Lean. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Elements and Freelance to Founder.

In our final episode of this productivity series we take a deep dive into how to prepare for and run better meetings, and some tricks to make sure that what was discussed at the meeting, actually gets done.  We'll hear from Mamie Kanfer Stewart of Meeteor, Charlie O'Donnell of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Cameron Herold the author of Meetings Suck and Brian Scudamore of 1-800-GOT-JUNK. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Elements and Freelance to Founder.

Mamie Kanfer Stewart, founder of Meeteor, talks with us about how to do meetings better. It's not just about being productive, but about getting higher quality work done as a result of that meeting. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Elements and Freelance to Founder.

Deep 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... *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Elements and Freelance to Founder.

Ron Wiener, the CEO of the Thermogenesis Group who runs the site Workingwhilewalking.com talks with us about the benefits of standing desks and walking desks and the science behind what happens when you get on the move during your work day.  *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Elements and Freelance to Founder.

Matt Hunckler is the founder and CEO of Verge, an event company that helps startup communities produce pitch events in their local towns. Matt spent the better part of 2016 on the road building his company and these communities and shares with us some of the techniques and tools he used to keep himself and his team productive while traveling. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Elements and Freelance to Founder.

Slack, Hipchat, Campfire - Chat applications have taken over our modern work communication. While they have certainly reduced our need for internal email they have caused their own set of productivity distractions. How do we deal with this distractions before they completely kill our productivity? Oh, and email isn't really going anywhere so let's learn some triage techniques that some of our favorite CEO's use every day.  *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Elements and Freelance to Founder.

Today we talk with Natalie Nagel Co-founder and CEO of Wildbit. Wildbit is known for it's popular products Beanstalk, Postmark and Deploybot. We talk about productivity and how they've built it into the culture at Wildbit. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Elements and Freelance to Founder.

In the second episode of our productivity series we dive into what makes a productive workspace. Spoiler alert - there’s no single answer. We get different perspectives on open vs. closed offices, clean vs. messy desks, and sitting vs. standing (and even walking) while you work. While we can’t tell you what’s best for you, you’ll definitely walk away from this episode with some food for thought on your current setup. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Elements and Freelance to Founder.

Amir Salihefendic talks with us about his inspiration for creating Todoist, a productivity app for individuals and teams. he walks us through some of his personal habits that help him stay sharp, focused and productive as well as how he's empowered his team to be more productive day after day. Todoist keeps track of all your tasks, projects, and goals in one beautifully simple place. It syncs across all your devices and integrates with all your favorite apps. For people who need less chaos and more peace-of-mind. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.    Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Eleme