Seeing a lot of Standford grads, ex-google, and ex-Meta engineers raising capital from VCs and angels. Very often, their rounds are oversubscribed. IMHO there’s definite brand-driven cachet when the founding team is stacked with Standford and Google (and other prestigious brands) Eng. What’s the equivalent company brand for Ex-PMs? If you’re a VC/ Angel, please chime in and share whether this question even matters! If there are newer “PayPal” mafia equivalent networks rising, please also share’
It’s ideal to be in senior management at a company during hyper growth, and the company ultimately had a meaningful exit.
100%. Also, I hope this applies to you too!!
Depends on what you are building and the stage you are at. If you are raising capital on back of the napkin, then your resume can make a difference. But instead of just a random brand, investors like to see domain experience. If you are starting a travel startup, VCs would prefer ex-Airbnb over Facebook. If you are starting a fintech startup, then fintech background is more relevant than Airbnb. If you are raising Series A or B, VCs like to see traction more than what school or company you worked at.
If you’re a PM at a large company, unless you drove a ton of impact, your best bets are probably working in middle/late stage startups where you have a chance at more growth/learning/promos where product teams are small and product is growing quick. It’s more important what you contributed and what period your company is in. More growth == more interest
Ex early Airbnb and Uber people do well.