Our first event in support of our new VentureFizz Communities initiative was awesome! It featured serial entrepreneur and tech icon, Paul English. The event was an opportunity to learn from a product guru who has built multiple companies that have scaled and exited.
We covered multiple topics, including Paul's decision-making process when selecting ideas to build companies around, the art of pivoting, invaluable hiring advice, and so much more.
Of particular note was Paul's emphasis on the importance of speaking directly to users. It's a major priority and he would think creatively about how to obtain this feedback. As an example, while building KAYAK, he would buy a ticket to go through airport security to not fly anywhere, but to talk to travelers for user research. This theme resonated throughout the interview, with Paul even offering a crash course on his approach to usability testing.
The conversation covered a wide array of subjects, including:
- Ideas and deciding which ones to build a company around.
- The full story of KAYAK from idea to $1.8B dollar exit to Priceline.
- The red phone at KAYAK and why he fielded customer service calls.
- Staying focused and the "Uber-Like" idea at KAYAK.
- The importance of talking to customers and Paul's approach to usability testing.
- The story behind Lola Travel from rapid growth to exit (acquired by Capital One).
- Boston Venture Studio’s Products.
- His thoughts on AI and determining its use for products.
- Hiring Product Managers.
- Career advice for Product Managers.