Founding Product Manager [32912]

Stealth Startup; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative technology startup based in San Francisco is seeking a Founding Product Manager to drive product execution and translate customer needs into actionable product strategies. The role involves collaborating closely with engineering teams and initial customers, focusing on metrics to define product success. Candidates should have 4–7 years of product experience, a startup mindset, and strong technical fluency. This is a unique opportunity to shape the product vision from the ground up.

Qualifications

• 4–7 years of product experience, ideally in early-stage startups or deep tech / B2B / ML / dev tools.
• Thrives in ambiguity and moves with urgency.
• Strong technical fluency and comfortable with engineers.

Responsibilities

• Translate customer needs into product hypotheses.
• Own product planning, roadmap, and execution.
• Partner with customers to validate hypotheses.

Skills

Product experience

Startup mindset

Technical fluency

Communication skills

Customer discovery

Building early-stage products

Job description

We're looking for our Founding Product Manager (PM), our first non-technical hire, who will translate ambiguous customer pain points into crisp product bets, drive 0→1 execution, and help define the product category for AI-native time-series.

The Role

Own 0→1: Translate raw, technical, and often ambiguous customer needs into sharp product hypotheses, ship fast, and validate impact.

Be the Connector: Work hand-in-hand with world-class engineers, researchers, and lighthouse customers to validate and scale winning patterns.

Grow into Leadership: Stand up lightweight product processes now, then build and lead the PM function as we scale into the next stage.

First 6–12 months (IC focus):

• Own product planning, roadmap, and execution in close collaboration with engineering, sales, legal and market
• Partner with early customers to validate hypotheses, prioritize features, and iterate quickly
• Drive new customer discovery through cold outreach, user research, etc.
• Introduce lightweight product processes (sprints, specs, internal tooling) to support execution
• Contribute to go-to-market strategy planning
• Metrics & KPIs: define clear, measurable KPIs for product success (user acquisition, engagement, retention, and overall product impact)
• Transition to product leadership as we grow

What we're looking for:

• 4–7 years of product experience, ideally in early-stage startups or deep tech / B2B / ML / dev tools
• Startup mindset: thrives in ambiguity and moves with urgency. Bias for action — builds fast, ships MVPs, and learns from real-world usage. Works side‑by‑side with engineering and design to iterate quickly, adjust course based on customer feedback and early market signals, and continuously refine product‑market fit
• Strong technical fluency — comfortable working with technical engineers and researchers (no coding required)
• Experience building early‑stage products from zero, with a bias for fast, thoughtful execution
• Excellent communication skills and ability to shape clear product narratives
• Hands‑on with customer discovery and prioritization
• Ambitious and driven — wants to build, not just manage

Location & Sponsorship