In other news… loving the new jacket I found on my United flight today.

My brother just got a brand new Scottish Terrier puppy. Please weigh in here @dog_rates @Thetarynarnold

Today I'm publishing a new way to think about building high-performing Growth teams: The Growth Competency Model framework. Thanks to my friends at @reforge and especially @RyanMcCready1 for his editing prowess. reforge.com/blog/the-growth-… Here's a brief summary of the article...

Proud to share my first post with @reforge co-authored by the fantastic ​​@keyaspatel. This is part one of a multi-part series on the Growing Specialization of Product Management. Here’s the link and some of the top takeaways in the thread. reforge.com/blog/product-spe…

Building on my first post "The Growing Specialization of Product Management" I’m excited to release the second part of this which is how to navigate those specializations - reforge.com/blog/product-spe… - co-authored with ​​@keyaspatel. See 🧵 for details.

A new, long-overdue FishmanAF Newsletter dropped this week: WTF is Strategy? I break down the messy process of strategy creation and move beyond templates and strategy output to show what it takes to craft great strategy. fishmanafnewsletter.com/p/wh…

It's that time again... time to get going with @reforge. There are sixteen, SIX. TEEN. Programs offered this Spring and your annual membership gets you access to all of them PLUS live cohorts. Read on to learn more 👇🤓

Had a guest on Startup Dad who said his kid didn’t want to eat breakfast in their house. Demanded a new house. 😂

My pal @andrewchen of @a16z wrote a book. It took him a very long time and so far it’s a really good read. He asked some folks if we could share a picture of us holding the book… but I don’t think he was expecting my Amelie-inspired photo shoot. A thread…

I’m starting a (mostly) weekly newsletter - The FishmanAF Newsletter. It’s free for now & includes my thoughts on Product, Growth, company building, leadership, being a Dad in the startup world and other🔥 takes. Subscribe: adamfishman.substack.com or: fishmanafnewsletter.com

This last weekend I downplayed how sick and barfy my kids were at home so my wife could enjoy a long-overdue and well-deserved trip. This seems like the opposite of that!

The tech I use daily as a startup exec and father of two kids: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Peloton, Wine, Beer.

Listening to @deray interview fmr FCC chair @TomWheelerFCC and just got to the #NetNeutrality “stifles infrastructure investment” faux-argument. Last night an @ATT rep knocked on our door to let us know that they’re installing fiber in our neighborhood. They seem so stifled. 😏

My @reforge article with @keyaspatel was one of the Top 5 career development posts for them this year. Check it out along with all the amazing posts here—including gems by @ravi_mehta, @crystalwidjaja, @ElenaVerna, @danhockenmaier, and @lennysan: reforge.com/blog/the-top-5-p…

I'm excited to be an Executive in Residence at @reforge for this Fall's live cohorts alongside some of the top people in tech. Reforge is where today's most driven technology workers come to learn, grow, and scale. reforge.com/blog/2021/announ…

Rocking the 3rd annual #PatreCon with the @SadBoyzPod @jarvis and @JordanAdika as our hosts and @Patreon team members. 300+ creators in attendance!

Today the @reforge collective got together to talk about advising - getting started, frameworks and approach, engagement models, and more. It was hosted by @beh_zod and Annie Warner.

Stopped by @Pinterest HQ today to have lunch and also hung out with this guy. He has a Pinterest dog tag and was quite a sweet fellow. Thoughts on this @Thetarynarnold and @dog_rates ?

I thought you were going to say reverse prenup so he could get rid of the albatross if a startup around his neck.

A lot of love from my @reforge Fall cohort. The Growth Series and Advanced Growth Strategy were really fun to lead. I connected with over a thousand growth practitioners across product, marketing, engineering and everything in between. Check out what they had to say below...

I'm doing an AMA in @lennysan's slack community (gotta join Lenny's newsletter to participate). One of the questions asked (thx @herzigma) was: "What advice can you give someone in product early in their career as the sole PM working with a (non-technical, non-product) founder?"

Cultural revolution happening w @Patreon @PeterHollens leading. Creators get paid for their work, what a concept! nyti.ms/2mIfxp8

Today @HarryStebbings released our conversation on Growth for the @20vcFund 20Growth podcast. We covered some amazing topics and Harry is a fantastic interviewer. Check it out and see what we covered in the thread: thetwentyminutevc.com/adam-f…

Excited to introduce my newest @reforge post alongside the very talented (and fun to work with) @natatouille! Having worked as BOTH a Product and Marketing leader I know how these two teams productively work together is critical to a company's success. Time for a thread! 🔽🔽🔽

Disappointing to just see men here in this thread. Going to add some incredible PMs I’ve worked with that are not: @ursheku @camillionz @adriennenwong @JPdiscotech @kristinaga @thaniya (to name a few)

One of the best parts of remote work is being home to cook dinner. I can now spend a lot more timing making a meal that my kids won’t eat.

“...it will be one year... in 6 months.” Hahaha

Today I'm launching a new podcast 🎙️ companion to my newsletter. It's called Startup Dad. You can find it at startupdadpod.com and on all your favorite podcast listening platforms. Here's a quick 🔥 video preview!

Dropping some @reforge knowledge with @matt_muffin on being a manager. He had some 🌶 hot 🥵 takes on managing up in a discussion he hosted a few weeks ago. A bunch of EIRs weighed in on them. Great stuff: reforge.com/blog/managing-up…

Shortly after I joined @lyft at the beginning of 2012 I found out that my wife was pregnant with our oldest daughter. We were a Series A startup, still called Zimride, with fewer than 20 people. Parental leave was the farthest thing from anyone's mind—no one had kids there. I didn't know what to do and took 2 weeks off because that was what I heard Dads did. I deeply regretted it. When @ltm founded his company, @projector, his wife Lisa was pregnant. He had to decide on parental support, healthcare and leave policies right away. He now has five kids and a full household! "We had just found out that she was pregnant and we were going to have a kid. All of these decisions that we just take for granted because your company and your HR team decides them for you at some point. It was like 'I don't know Luke, what are the policies around this? Are we doing paternity leave? How do we manage things like healthcare?'" On today's Startup Dad podcast Luke and I discuss: 👨‍👧 How to structure and take paternity leave as a startup founder 🤗 Building individual relationships with each of your kids when you have so many of them 🤯 How he handled the transition to working from home with a full household 👩‍⚕️ His wife's recent and ongoing battle with cancer 🤔 How cancer has become a big part of their parenting lives and the support systems they've needed to navigate it 🙈 Mistakes he's made as a Dad This was an amazing conversation - give it a listen (or watch) everywhere you get your podcasts. Links below.

What is it like coping with the loss of a child while starting a venture-backed company? In the latest episode of the Startup Dad Podcast I interview my friend, colleague, and fellow Dad @bbalfour (CEO and founder of Reforge) and we discuss his experiences with loss.

After nearly two years of living in a pandemic my kids are able to get vaccinated today. I’m excited.

See @Patreon in a great piece by @fmanjoo & the thriving @nytimes How the Internet Is Saving Culture, Not Killing It nyti.ms/2mIfxp8

About to be wheels up en route to the Amplify @Amplitude_HQ conference. Speaking Thursday with the 🐐 @ElenaVerna. Can’t wait!

I moderated a parents panel @Patreon today as part of our parents employee resource group (ERG) - “Sprout.” It was super candid and funny plus I learned a lot about my fellow Patreon parents. What you can’t see in front of us is a totally packed all-hands space!

I've been feeling *not great* about all the layoffs happening throughout the tech industry. It seems like a lot of this was avoidable and shouldn't be blamed on an economic downturn.

I just assume they’re all out editing their “Day in the life” videos, no?

It’s nice to see someone who actually wants to do the hard work required of the job and takes the office and responsibility seriously.

Proud to have been involved with @reforge for such a long time - as a guest, an EIR, and an investor! @bbalfour, @JoannaLord, @matt_muffin, @far33d (and the entire team) are making a sizable dent in the career development universe!

My team is hiring a Sr. Growth engineer. Awesome time to join and Growth is a top company priority. Come help us send our next $1B to creators in half the time and make @Patreon a household name. boards.greenhouse.io/patreon… Cc: @onecaseman @bbalfour @andrewchen for signal boost.

Correct. Doom-scrolling Twitter keeps this Dad awake late into the night. Also I’m no longer 30.

New startup experiencing hyper growth.

Thank you @deray for stopping by @Patreon and spending so much time with us. It was a total honor!

🎙️Podcast alert! I joined my pal @lennysan a little while ago on his podcast (lennyspodcast.com) and the episode dropped today! Get it on 🍎 here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…

This is a good Slack policy. The temptation to jump into to conversations vs. letting your team respond and resolve is big. I had to learn to let this go several years ago. Also use gifs. Lots of gifs.

Web3 solves this Alex.

I made @Tradecraft list of Top 50 people to know in Growth. Pretty cool. Come join our team at @Patreon !

My 8yo daughter is starting to ask very detailed questions about the logistics surrounding Christmas and Santa. She’s testing the fences like a raptor. I think this is the beginning of the end.

Big day for @Patreon and excited for accelerating our mission. We're hiring. recode.net/2017/9/19/1633261…

Always hilarious when my dog gives me the side eye.

Big fan of the wedge strategy. Also the wedge salad - especially the bacon.

Still one of the best decisions I ever made. Contact and glasses free for about 7-8 years now.

New album just dropped. No wait... it's the @reforge EIR cohort announcement! reforge.com/blog/announcing-… Cohort previews are next week so if you're on the fence about Reforge... don't be. Get up and apply. Check out these glamour shots 💅 and learn more about everyone here 🔽🔽

It's that time again. That magical time with the leaves 🍂are starting to turn colors, the kids are back in school 🏫, and @far33d is starting to pace in his office... IT'S @reforge FALL COHORT TIME! reforge.com/fall-22-cohort?u… Want to learn more? Read on!

I thought you were going to recommend going to Chili’s and then suing for food poisoning to generate cash flow.

What an exciting day for creators -- no more spreadsheets to manage the benefits creators give their fans via @Patreon memberships! A huge multi-team, multi-quarter project.

Time for another 🔥 Hot Take Alert 🚨on the FishmanAF Newsletter. Let’s STOP the practice and terminology of “Growth Hacking” fishmanafnewsletter.com/p/ho… Thanks to @AKGrenier @ElenaVerna @MausolfDavid @thefiske and @dustywes for lending their thoughts!

It bothers me that I can open a bank account online but I to close one I have to call or visit a branch in person. Why is this?

You know we'd be happy to have @PodSaveThePpl and the rest of @crookedmedia on board. "Patrons of the Pod!"

So an exciting thing happened this morning around 12:20am. I hit 1,000 subscribers on my newsletter. In less than 5 days. 😅 I definitely had some help from my pal @lennysan.

My pal Andrew wrote a book that will become a must read for every entrepreneur, growth practitioner, product leader, and anyone building a business. Congrats Andrew and can’t wait to get my autographed copy 😊

We talk about time as a resource, but is life (work, family, etc.) really about finding more time? In my Startup Dad conversation with @immad, co-founder and CEO of @mercury, he argues that it's energy that matters most. "The thing that's more of a resource is actually energy. If you're doing something that energizes you you're willing to give it time. You can do the things that give you energy and you can do more of them. And I always came out with net energy from my kids..." Immad has founded and exited two companies, raised over $160m for Mercury and helped take it to over 100,000 customers and profitability. He's probably pretty busy 😁. But in that time he's also raising two daughters with his wife. We discussed: 👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 Starting a family at a very young age (by San Francisco standards) 🛣️ Navigating founding and running several companies, including Mercury 🤔 The difference between finding more time and finding more energy 🏗️ How to think about skill building with your kids 🗣️ Dealing with disagreements with your spouse 🔃 The parallels between being the co-founder of a company and the co-founder of a family If you're curious to hear from a successful, serial entrepreneur and Dad/husband... give today's episode a listen. I learned a lot! Watch, listen, learn everywhere you get your pods at the links below.

A lot of people want to leave California and I understand that… but then this…

That Patreon is still under appreciated is, IMO, partially because a lot of people still don’t understand or appreciate creators in the real and truly authentic way that Jack does.

Excited for this next cohort at @reforge - the team their is top notch and their content and structure with the membership model is best in class. Great work @bbalfour and team!

Earlier this week the FishmanAF Newsletter hit 2,000 subscribers. About a week after I hit 1,000. Quite humbled by the interest in my writing and the growing community.

I have a wedding coming up. Will file this under “research.”

We're in pretty good company on this list. I'm okay with @patreon coming in 2nd to @washingtonpost and looks like the gauntlet has been thrown down @crookedmedia. @TVietor08 @jonlovett @jonfavs @danpfeiffer if you want to stop by the office to hug it out we're here for you.

Super proud of my team at @patreon - “Why Would I Ever Write a Growth Experiment Doc?” by @talraviv medium.com/@talraviv/why-wou…

How long until San Franciscans start ditching each other for the better Zoom happy hour?

In addition to your @Patreon strategy... I also love the Redwings hat and Michigan shirt. Awesome stuff @yakkopinky !

If it were 15-20 years ago these people would be doing late-night “get rich quick” infomercials on public access tv.

Can’t wait to be a part of this!

Having been an early employee and part of the launch of Lyft... I remember this *quite* well. Also, the book is solid @MikeIsaac — started it yesterday.

I’ll never get this 3min 42 seconds of my life back.

Listen to this, it’ll help: startupdadpod.com/raising-re…

A major day for @Lyft; we're now the largest ridesharing platform in the U.S. after launching 24 Cities in one day. lft.to/1roO2e1

At long last it has arrived! Thanks @jonfavs @jonlovett @TVietor08 @danpfeiffer and the whole @crookedmedia team. Now if I can just get my kids to let me use it…

Watching @anothercohen up on stage at @Amplitude_HQ Amplify conference. Great dinner guest, even greater speaker.

Hell, you can even learn from people BETTER than me. Folks like @ElenaVerna, @onecaseman, @bbalfour, @ShaunMClowes, @crystalwidjaja, @beh_zod, @andrewchen, @valwagoner, @sachinrekhi, @britt_bingham, @ravi_mehta and... and... and... HUNDREDS more.

Looking for the canonical definition of Growth Marketing? You’ve come to the right place. Fantastic stuff from @britt_bingham @thefiske and other growth and product leaders around the world (including me!). @reforge gets it right again!

Had such a great time doing this with Harry. Can’t wait for it to drop tomorrow!!!

This is such a good thread on choosing companies. I’ve picked well a few times in my career and picked poorly a few other times. Much of this rings true for me.

It’s a bridge to startup success…

I’m now fairly convinced that the entire internet is just one giant affiliate marketing lead capture form.

I was wondering why my mentions got destroyed today 😂 Excited for this @lennysan!

Imagine every major city experiencing the current air the most populated parts of California are experiencing. That’s our climate change future.

Tell me you don’t have children without telling me you don’t have children.

Except this isn’t what happened.

I’m planning a fundraiser for this weekend and the dress code is COVID Formal. Business up top; athleisure down below. Very happy about this decision.

Love to see this! Especially after teaching AGS the last 12 months.

If you want people to do extraordinary things for you you have to understand what their intrinsic motivations are... you can't just say "I'm the boss." @CJHandmer sat down with me on today's Startup Dad podcast and dropped some knowledge on astrophysics, saving the planet and raising three kids while building a world-changing company. We covered: ▶️ Productivity and priorities ▶️ How to make it work without a support structure ▶️ How to work on having optimism be the default so you can build a better future ▶️ How he and his wife (also an astrophysicist and engineering leader) manage a busy household and three under the age of five ▶️ The importance of long-term projects, both professionally and personally ▶️ The worst parenting advice he's ever given and received ▶️ His kids and their relationship with technology You can check it out anywhere you get your podcasts!

Where else do you get to meet folks like @onecaseman @laurynisford @andrewchen, @dariusmc, @bbalfour, @ElenaVerna, @ShaunMClowes, @HilaQu, @kevinakwok, and SO MANY MORE?

Run... do not walk... to your nearest internet-enabled device and sign up for this. The growth of you and your company depends on it.

The first pillar of my 2021 product strategy for IF: “Nail the basics.”

I am amazed that all the on-demand dry cleaning services couldn’t make it. If I were acquiring customers I’d just run ads targeting parents of young children on a Sunday evening starting around 8pm. CAC would be about $0.05.

I have a higher bar for hiring a babysitter than our elected officials do for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

Listing to @lennysan’s podcast interview with @kennethn & love the “cotton candy” analogy on advice v. coaching. Lots of talking heads dispensing advice; not enough providing real, personalized coaching to help ppl reach their true potential. Great show! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…

What do you do when you're working at a fast-paced startup and a new baby enters your life? How do you manage a supporting relationship with your partner?

We're still a long way from our D&I goals -- but the journey must include public accountability of our progress. Check out our now-public discussion of diversity and inclusion at @Patreon. So proud to work at a company that makes this a top priority: patreonhq.com/diversity-and-…