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20VC: Startups Fail Because They Do Not Take Enough Risk, Why A/B Testing is Inefficient and Slows You Down, Why It is Impossible To Hire Good PMs so Stop Trying & 3 Key Signals The Best Engineers Present with Grant LaFontaine, Founder & CEO @ Whatnot

20VC

Mar 22, 2022

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Grant LaFontaine is the Founder & CEO @ Whatnot, the fastest-growing marketplace in the US, empowering people to make a living off their passion. To date, Grant has raised over $225M for Whatnot from the likes of CapitalG, a16z, YC, Scribble Ventures and Wonder Ventures to name a few. Prior to Whatnot, Grant was a PM @ Facebook working on the Oculus App Store and before that was the founder of Kit.com, ultimately acquired by Patreon.

In Today’s Episode with Grant LaFontaine You Will Learn:

1.) The Founding of Whatnot:

How did Grant make his way into the world of tech and startups?
What were some of his biggest lessons from Facebook? How did that impact how he has built Whatnot?

2.) Impossible To Hire Product Managers:

Why does Grant believe it is impossible to hire product managers today?
How does this impact the decision-making powers of engineers?
How does Grant test for this product knowledge in all engineers he adds to the team?
What are clear signals of 10x engineers in hiring processes?

3.) A/B Testing and Risk Mindset:

Why does Grant not believe in the effectiveness of A/B testing? Why does it not work?
Why does Grant believe one of the biggest reasons for startups failing is they do not take enough risk?
How does Grant try to ensure that his team takes as much risk as possible with everything that they do?
How does mindset to risk change with scale of company and with leadership?

4.) AMA:

Why does Grant disagree with founders angel investing?
What are the biggest challenges Whatnot has faced in scaling?
CEO coach? Who? When? What is the biggest lesson?
What is the single driving metric of Whatnot? How does Grant advise founders to determine their North Star metric?