According to Edwin Chen, CEO of Surge AI, product managers and data scientists have no place in the founding team.
Chen said in an episode of “No Priors Podcast” released Thursday, he frequently hears a list of early-stage founders. role Of their first 5-10 recruits. “This is wild for me,” he said.
Chen, a former data scientist himself, said he would not hire data scientists early.
“Data scientists are great when you want to optimize your product by 2% or 5%, but it's not something you want to do when you start a company,” he said.
“You're about to swing with a 10x or 100x change. Don't worry, you're nipping about small percentage points that are noise anyway.”
The founder of the Data Label startup said product managers didn't make sense early. He said this role is useful for engineers only at one time. There is no more time or ability to drive the direction of the product.
“Your engineers need to be practical, and they should have great ideas too,” he said.
“When your company is big enough, a product manager is great, but at first you should think about yourself, the product you want to build,” he added.
Surge AI and Chen did not respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.
Great product manager discussion
Chen's comments come as the debate continues in the startup world over the role of product managers.
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The product manager is called the “minitheo” of the products he overseen. They act as a bridge between engineers, sales teams, customer service and other departments, ensuring that the product matches the needs of the users.
However, this role has become polarized. Some tech workers claim that product managers have little value, Business Insider's Amanda Hoover reported in November.
Microsoft wants to increase the number of engineers compared to product or program managers, Bi's Ashley Stewart reported in March. Other companies, such as Airbnb and Snap, are rethinking the need for product managers.
Executives are looking to go to “founder mode” – the concept created by Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham and promoted by Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has some leaders questioning whether product decisions should be delegated to product managers.
In 2023, Chesky integrated product management and marketing, and Snap told Information that same year that it would help 20 product managers accelerate the company's decision-making.
Others believe that the impact of product managers will only grow in the age of AI.
In an episode of the “20 Minutes of VC” podcast in March, Microsoft Chief Technology Officer Kevin Scott said product managers will play a key role in setting up a “feedback loop” to make AI agents even better.
