Pros
Absolutely transformative role where I helped build something special from near-zero to 150,000+ users.
The opportunity to lead growth strategy for a pre-revenue Series A (£13.3m from Google Ventures and Khosla Ventures!) was incredible validation.
Rafie and Nitish (The Founders) genuinely trusted me with autonomy to experiment boldly - this enabled many big bold bets and failed experiments (where we'd come away with learnings).
Example wins include a 17x improvement in activation rates from a product release, and international expansion.
I was able to build and mentor a brilliant team of 10 in-house and external specialists across paid, organic, CRM, video, PR, and PMM.
The learning curve was steep and exhilarating:
PM'd engineering projects,
Built financial models for board presentations,
Hackathons and team culture during peak periods were genuinely world-class - everyone brought their A-game.
For anyone wanting experience in a fast-growing AI startup with exceptional investors, and an incredible mission to serve and inspire others, this is the place. You'll learn more in one year here than five years elsewhere.
Cons
Some natural tension between growth experimentation velocity and engineering/product development cycles, but this is typical in high-growth tech companies and actually drove better prioritization over time.
