Reinventing Venture Capital With Product Thinking [Newsletter #36]

Hello, AI enthusiasts from all around the world! Welcome to the weekly newsletter for the AI and The Future of Work podcast.

The COVID pandemic brought many lessons to companies, and no wake-up call was more challenging than this one: transform digitally or disappear. 

Big and small companies created product teams, hired product leaders, and accelerated their digital transformation. 

What's fascinating is that the lessons they've learned apply not only to product thinking but also to many other areas, including venture capital. 

Today, we explore how one person used product thinking to navigate the challenging world of venture capital, plus why you need a unique mindset to succeed in VC. 

Let's dive into this week's highlights! 🚀

🎙️ New Podcast Episode With SC Moatti, Founder of Mighty Capital and Products That Count

Investors make you money, right? Not exactly. 

Investors are in the business of managing risk. 

Yes, people want investors to make them money. But, more than that, they want investors to protect money. 

That's why Venture Capitalists say "no" a lot.  

They say no to thousands of entrepreneurs every year. It's unpleasant, and it can be exhausting. 

That's a big lesson SC Moatti learned founding her venture firm, Mighty Capital. But she also realized there was a lot of potential. 

In her words, "the bar was low." So, she took on a David vs. Goliath mentality and put the big, old dinosaurs to shame. 

She spoke with our CEO, Dan Turchin, about the challenge of being a small fish in a huge VC pond and how applying product thinking helped her reshape her company to cope with the challenges in the venture capital landscape. 

SC Moatti is the founder of Mighty Capital and Products That Count, and one of Silicon Valley's most dynamic venture capitalists and product leaders. 

Her journey took her from studying electrical engineering in Paris to becoming a tech entrepreneur with companies such as Electronic Arts and Facebook to the competitive world of venture capital. 

She also wrote the award-winning book "Mobilized" and is a sought-after keynote speaker and lecturer, having spoken at Columbia and Stanford Business schools. 

Plus, she was one of the earliest investors in PeopleReign! 

SC discusses this and much more:

• Mighty Capital's unique approach to due diligence processes and why it focuses on high-performing teams, ambitious traction, and fair, long-term partnerships.

• How Products That Count grew from a small community into a global network of over half a million product leaders and its influence on the industry.

• The evolving role of product managers in an AI-first world and how to adapt to stay ahead in this rapidly changing environment.

• The ethical responsibilities of product leaders range from managing AI's unintended consequences to maintaining trust and transparency in product development.

This issue is inspired by our latest AI and the Future of Work podcast episode featuring SC Moatti.

🎧 Listen here for SC's fascinating path into the complex and competitive VC world, how product thinking and AI can coexist, and the future of product management.

Want to stay updated on SC Moatti's latest ventures? Connect with SC Moatti on LinkedIn and let her know you listened to her episode!

📖 AI Fun Fact Article

Suppose you were a "product person" who spent all day sitting in front of Jira and Confluence or analyzing spreadsheets.

In that case, chances are you've already been fired. 

That's because traditional product management has died, and AI is responsible, according to Joe Procopio. 

Procopio writes in Inc.com that, instead, the next wave of innovation will come from combining the spirit of entrepreneurship with knowing what people want and how to bring it to them. 

After all, we're in a product death loop. AI produces the same product built on the same code for the same target market over and over again. 

Not only that, but companies deemphasize experimentation in favor of an unbending road map. Innovation takes a step back in favor of recurring revenue that, sometimes, is smaller. 

But it's predictable. 

The rigidity is claiming many victims in the product world. 

We need someone to come in and innovate our way out of that vicious cycle. So real product people are even more critical than real software developers. 

Therein lies the opportunity for truly great product people.

Our CEO, Dan Turchin, insists on a timeless idea: storytelling is an art that's critical for product innovation. 

It's through storytelling that humans find meaning and purpose. These traits transcend LLMs and all other types of AI. 

That's why if you invest in what makes you human and cultivate skills like critical thinking and empathy, you'll always be valued—whether in product management or any other role.

Here's the link to Joe Procopio's article on Inc.com. As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts, so leave us a comment!

🧠 Worth a Thought

Coming Up Next 🚀

That’s a Wrap for This Week! 🎧

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