By Lenny Rachitsky · lennysnewsletter.com · @lennysan on X · YouTube · LinkedIn
Lenny Rachitsky answers a reader who just sold their startup and is moving into a product manager role without formal PM training. Drawing on his own experience after Localmind was acquired by Airbnb, he admits he was a weak PM at first and shares five lessons he wishes he'd known. The core argument is that a founder's win-at-all-costs mindset must shift toward collaboration, stability and listening, while still keeping the entrepreneurial drive that the acquirer hired them for. The advice is practical for anyone moving from founding a company into working inside a larger one.
01Key takeaways
- Shift from winning at all costs to smoothing execution, collaboration and buy-in when becoming a PM.
- Keep your entrepreneurial drive: push for speed and voice ideas, since the acquirer wanted that energy.
- Find a successful PM inside the company to learn how things get done and who to know.
- Assume colleagues are smarter, ask lots of questions, and form an informed view before proposing changes.
- Take your manager's feedback seriously, because their opinion now directly affects your career.
02Key sections
- Founder vs. PM mindset
- A founder is rewarded for winning at any cost, while a PM is expected to keep things smooth and avoid chaos. The transition requires investing in teamwork, buy-in and communication.
- Keep the entrepreneurial spirit
- Acquirers buy companies to move faster, so the new PM should push for speed, take risks and voice ideas for change. Being humble doesn't mean being passive.
- Find a PM buddy
- Building a relationship with a successful PM inside the company gives insight into how work actually gets done and who matters. If there are no other PMs, a peer in another function works.
- Be humble and ask questions
- Assume colleagues know more, spend time listening and learning the business, and only then share informed perspectives. Founders often enter with too much ego.
- Listen to your boss
- Your manager's view now shapes your career, and you trade control for salary, benefits and less risk. That trade is a good deal.
03From the post
“Hello and welcome to another edition of my weekly newsletter 👋 If you’re finding this newsletter valuable, consider sharing it with friends 🤝 Q: I just sold my company to another startup and now I'm transitioning from startup founder to product manager at this new company. I’ve never had "proper" training as a PM, so I'm a little worried about the integration with the new team. Do you have any tips? [](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s!XUlI!,fauto,qauto:good,flprogressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa1141876-962d-4512-a28b-22e31bd7fc86614x343.png) This EXACTLY the situation I found myself in when I entered Airbnb. I was the CEO of a little startup called Localmind which we ended up selling to Airbnb in 2012. Up until that point I’d been a software engineer my entire professional life, so I had no real idea of what product management was. And looking back, I was really bad at it. I knew very little about managing up, keeping scope in check, leading teams within a larger org, and basically everything else a PM should know. Also, having just run my own company for 1.5 years, it took me waaaaaay to long to remember that…”
Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.