The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20Product: Shopify's VP Product on Why the Founder is Always the Head of Product, What Makes Truly Special Product Managers, Why The Majority of Product Managers Need to Change, Why Top-Down Decision-Making in Product is Good & How Shopify Will Be Bigger

Listen Later

Glen Coates is the VP of Product @ Shopify, leading the development of Shopify's core commerce platform. He also oversees the core developer platform and Shopify's partner ecosystem, which includes over 10,000 publicly available apps in the Shopify App Store. Originally a CompSci grad, Glen moved from Sydney to San Diego in 2008 to run US distribution and e-commerce for an Australian eco-products company. In 2010, he attended Columbia Business School for one whole day before quitting to start Handshake, a SaaS B2B e-commerce platform. Glen joined Shopify in May 2019 when the company acquired Handshake. Glen has been in the Vice President role since October 2020.

In Today's Episode with Glen Coates We Discuss:

1. From Game Developer in Sydney to Running E-Commerce Warehouse in NYC:

  • How Glen made his way into the world of product and e-commerce having started life as a game developer?
  • Why does Glen believe that the best founders and product people often have their roots in gaming?
  • What does Glen know now that he wishes he had known when he joined Shopify?

2. The Art of Product and Product Management:

  • Is product more an art or a science? If you had to put a number on it, what would it be?
  • What is "product management"? Why can it not be reduced to frameworks?
  • What are "product principles"? How do Shopify use them? How should product teams set them?
  • What makes the very best PMs today? What are the commonalities in them?
  • What is the sign of a poor PM? What would Glen most like to change about the world of PMs?

3. The Art of Product Marketing:

  • What does Glen believe is the true art of product marketing?
  • How did a CEO group teach Glen how to tell truly great stories?
  • How can one tell great stories when you have to cater to multiple different customers/personas?
  • How does Glen evaluate the current state of Shopify's product marketing?

4. Shopify and The Future of Shopify:

  • Why does Glen think it is important for Shopify to have a tops down decision-making process for product strategy?
  • What does Glen believe is the #1 reason why Shopify is such a large and successful company?
  • What is the single hardest element of Glen's role today?
  • How does Glen believe that Shopify will be larger than Amazon in 5-10 years time?

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The PitchBy Harry Stebbings
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4

4.4

494 ratings

More shows like The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

View all
This Week in Startups by Jason Calacanis

This Week in Startups

1,283 Listeners

The a16z Show by Andreessen Horowitz

The a16z Show

1,099 Listeners

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy by Colossus | Investing & Business Podcasts

Invest Like the Best with Patrick O'Shaughnessy

2,357 Listeners

Founders by David Senra

Founders

2,160 Listeners

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry by Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

791 Listeners

Y Combinator Startup Podcast by Y Combinator

Y Combinator Startup Podcast

226 Listeners

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg by All-In Podcast, LLC

All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg

10,017 Listeners

Dwarkesh Podcast by Dwarkesh Patel

Dwarkesh Podcast

522 Listeners

ACQ2 by Acquired by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal

ACQ2 by Acquired

299 Listeners

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups by Conviction

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

133 Listeners

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley by BG2Pod

BG2Pod with Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley

472 Listeners

AI + a16z by a16z

AI + a16z

35 Listeners

TBPN by John Coogan & Jordi Hays

TBPN

121 Listeners

Uncapped with Jack Altman by Alt Capital

Uncapped with Jack Altman

42 Listeners

Cheeky Pint by Stripe

Cheeky Pint

37 Listeners