Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Building Substack | Sachin Monga (Substack, Facebook)

October 30, 2022

AI Summary

5 min read

Sachin Monga, head of product at Substack, discusses the company's shift from a writer tool to a network, drawing from his time at Facebook and founding Cocoon, a photo-sharing app acquired by Substack. The conversation covers product organization, working with founder Chris Best, the recommendations feature, and principles guiding Substack's evolution.

Product team structure and processes

Substack recently formalized its product function with four PMs and three full-stack teams focused on writers, readers, and growth—plus a systems team. This customer-oriented structure avoids tying teams to fleeting surfaces like apps or dashboards, aiming for timeless problems. Processes emphasize weekly alignment with the CEO, constant iteration amid growth, and facilitation over top-down decisions, especially as the company transitions from founder-led to product-driven. Challenges include processes becoming obsolete quickly, requiring humility and adaptability; Monga notes this suits personalities comfortable with uncertainty, unlike stable environments.

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What you'll learn

1 **[00:33 - 05:03] Episode Intro & Substack's Rise**
2 **[05:12 - 07:12] Path to Substack & Facebook Background**
3 **[07:25 - 10:11] Product Org Structure & Evolution**
4 **[10:36 - 16:03] Working with Product-Minded Founder (Chris Best)**
5 **[16:37 - 20:57] FB vs. Startup PM Differences & Prioritization Principles**
6 **[22:17 - 29:58] Recommendations Feature: Origin, Impact & Future**
7 **[32:38 - 36:45] Product Rollout Process & Handling Press**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

Sachin Monga is the Head of Product at Substack, a platform that I personally use every day, and love. Before Substack, Sachin co-founded an app called Cocoon, which he ended up selling to Substack. Before that, he spent over seven years at Facebook as a PM working on video and camera products, building out the developer platform, and leading the ads growth team. In today’s episode, we dive deep on all things Substack. Sachin shares what it’s like transitioning from a large product team at Facebook to a small growth team. He discusses how to work with a hands-on founder and why you must be comfortable with rapid change in a PM role. He also shares unique features of Substack that make it an optimized experience for readers and writers, how he’d like to see it improved, and tips for anyone wanting to get started writing online.

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Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/building-substack-sachin-monga-substack

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Where to find Sachin Monga:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sachinmonga

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sachinmonga/

• Email: [email protected]

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/