Phil is currently VP of Product & Engineering at Close.com, building a product people love and growing our SaaS business to be something great. Previously he spent two years leading the Engineering team at Quizlet, building study tools that millions of students relied upon. Phil has also interned at Google and Yahoo! as a software engineer, and did lots of freelance website design while at the University of Florida.
Co-founder of Brainhub, Matt describes himself as a “serial entrepreneur”. Throughout his career, Matt has developed several startups in Germany, wearing many hats- from a marketer to an IT Engineer and customer support specialist. As a host of the Better Tech Leadership podcast, Matt talks about growing successful businesses and the challenges of being a startup founder and investor.
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In this episode, Imke Gaus shares her journey to leading the software engineering competence center at Volkswagen Group, discussing her career path from startup roles to her current position at CARIAD and the mentors who influenced her along the way. She highlights the integration of software development in the automotive industry, emphasizing customer impact, reliability, and security in digital experiences, while also exploring CARIADs focus on enhancing safety, sustainability, and comfort through a unified software stack.
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In this episode, Matt and Antoine explore the critical role of mindset in product management, discussing experiences from Lazada and Alibaba. Antoine highlights the importance of aligning commercial and product development goals, stressing collaboration and nuanced objectives beyond revenue metrics, while also emphasizing market relevance and flexibility to avoid rigid frameworks. The episode addresses challenges like tech recession impacts and team layoffs, advocating for resilient teams and personal development.
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In this podcast episode, Matt interviews Sylvain Grande, who emphasizes the crucial role of product management in business growth through a deep understanding of profit and loss (P&L) statements, highlighting how product managers can influence financial outcomes by enhancing customer satisfaction and efficiency. Grande discusses the importance of all team members understanding P&L dynamics, the need for transparency with financial data, and the value of being data-driven and customer-centric to enable flexibility and avoid rigid processes. The conversation also covers the challenges of managing systems, integrating external solutions, and adapting company culture for growth, with insights from Grande’s personal experiences in launching products and navigating team dynamics.
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In this episode, Matt and Alex Akimov discuss Alex's experiences in fintech, exploring the dynamics of working in startups versus large organizations, with insights from his time at Adyen and Monite. They delve into topics such as strategic scaling, maintaining company culture, API management, and the impact of different work cultures, like the Dutch and US approaches, on innovation. The conversation also covers challenges like GDPR, managing international teams, and the evolving role of a CTO, with references to influential books on leadership and decision-making.
