Ben Lang

How to find and join the next breakout startup

Notion

atSpoke

Formerly early team at Notion. Serial community builder and angel investor.

The story behind how I discovered Notion early and joined the company, without formally interviewing.

A case study: how I joined Notion

Tactics on how to find interesting companies before others and best practices on evaluating the right company for you.

Finding and evaluating breakout startups

Non traditional strategies you can use to get your foot in the door.

Creative ways to get in the door

Brand operators, especially in growth-stage companies, are expected to ship new work and creative at the same time as developing the brand's core strategy and thinking on a long-term, strategic level. That's an extremely difficult balance—especially when alignment from the top and across the org is not a given. The demands of your job mean coming up with winning creative, shipping brand campaigns, reporting on your results, and sourcing insights—all the while building a differentiated, consistent brand that can scale with the needs of the business... needs that are changing all the time. Building and growing respected tech brands—especially through the most challenging, chaotic growth phases—is what I do best. I was Brex's #1 marketing hire and led Brex's successful rebrand. Most recently, I built out the global brand &amp; integrated marketing team at Notion. I've coached hundreds of operators over my career, helping brands grow from $1B →&nbsp;$10B+ valuations and scaling from under 50 employees to over 1,000. This cohort-based program is extremely tactical. It's built around real-life templates, pulled from my own experience, that you can use right away to: 1) Drive alignment and alliance across your entire org, through the brand 2) Revamp your internal processes around messaging, resourcing, launches and campaigns and 3) Practically apply the hard-won methods of fast-growing, beloved tech brands, helping you apply an executive mindset and elevate your position as a leader over just a few weeks. — Course material includes: Self-paced course content, live 1:1 consulting/office hours, project critique and feedback from Kira, an always-on Q&amp;A channel, and 25+ Notion templates &amp; resources—for you to use and take with you long after the cohort is complete. You will have lifetime access to all course materials.

Transform your brand org into one that leads, not follows

Working in a dynamic landscape means constantly shifting priorities and an ever-evolving landscape. We'll orient ourselves in what success means—and how that changes over time. Overview:<ul><li>Define success: The pillars to scaling a brand</li><li>Identify critical brand opportunities in context of the business</li><li>Accessing Notion templates &amp; resources</li></ul>

Pre-work: Brand Strategy Milestones

Are you working on the right thing? Figure out your brand's biggest opportunities by diving into a case study from Brex on building foundational alignment. Notion Templates:<ul><li>Taste-Making Exercises</li><li>Brand Discussion Guide</li><li>Corporate Strategy Summary</li></ul>

Week 1: How to Find the Gaps

You've heard that consistency builds a brand. What builds consistency?Alignment—everyone needs to be on the same page about what you're building. We'll continue the Brex case study that led to their successful rebrand. Notion Templates:<ul><li>2x2 Grid: Brand Differentiation</li><li>Competitive Positioning Framework</li><li>Brand Foundations Framework</li></ul>

Week 1: How to Close the Gaps

The best ideas in the world don't matter without buy-in—or $ investment—from your leadership, your peers, or your team. This is how you get that buy-in. Notion Templates:<ul><li>Persuasive Brand Budget Requests</li><li>Brand Budgeting Spreadsheet</li><li>Pre-Mortem Brainstorms</li></ul>

Week 2: How to Get Buy-In

Build a multi-year marketing or campaign calendar that keeps all GTM teams aligned and informed on what you're putting out in front of customers. ﻿Notion Template:<ul><li>The Ultimate Marketing/Campaign/Launch Calendar</li></ul>

🔓 Bonus: Your marketing calendar needs a makeover

Craft brand-led, industry-leading campaigns that leverage the entire GTM function, with Notion as a case study. Notion Templates:<ul><li>Crafting an Effective Campaign Playbook</li><li>Define Internal SLAs for Cross-Functional Alignment</li><li>The Ultimate Campaign Brief (International, Multi-Channel)</li><li>Strategy Framework Library</li></ul>

Week 2: How to Build Winning Brand Campaigns

There are a thousand ways to measure a brand's impact, not all of them useful or practical. This module emphasizes strategies to glean actionable insights about your brand that help quantify its impact and inform future investments. Notion Templates:<ul><li>Social Proof Survey</li><li>Brand Health Survey Questions</li><li>Sourcing Brand Insights</li></ul>

Week 2: Actionable Brand Insights

Rebrands are often the culmination of all the skills referenced in the syllabus above. This bonus content, based on Brex's successful rebrand, covers tactical resources for maintaining alignment all the way through launch and beyond. Notion Templates:<ul><li>The Ultimate Rebrand Tracker</li><li>Internal FAQ for Rebranding</li></ul>

🔓 Bonus: Leading a Rebrand

My personal tech vendor roster is my rolodex—essentially my shortlist—of agencies and partners I've worked with or been in talks with over the course of my career, giving you an easy resource when you're ready to get work out the door! Even better, it's a Notion template. 😊

🔓 Bonus: Access my tech vendor roster

Course syllabus

Each week features 1-2 modules plus bonus content. Each module includes a mix of projects, lessons (long-form and video), and templates that you can use right away.

Self-paced lessons

Each module pairs with a handful of practical projects, worksheets, or reflections to help bring the course content to life. Every project is an opportunity for discussion and feedback from Kira.

Practical projects

Join Kira for two live, 1:1 consulting sessions to ask questions about the course or get real-time feedback or advice. Kira will also respond to questions and provide feedback throughout the cohort async. 🕘 Tuesdays, between 9am-12pm PT / 12pm-3pm ET

Office hours

Course schedule

VPs &amp; Heads of Marketing at growth-stage&nbsp;startups&nbsp;developing your brand strategy and growth levers alongside founders &amp; C-suite

Mid- to senior-level brand marketing ICs ready to find your path to leadership and up-level your org's Brand function

Experienced marketing leaders&nbsp;seeking to refresh and deepen your tactical approach to modern brand strategy and campaigns

Senior leaders who are experts in other areas&nbsp;of marketing, like PMM or Growth, and want to get stronger in Brand

⚠️ This is not a Branding 101 course—we're going beyond the fundamentals and deep into daily operating rhythms (read on for 101 resources)

For Early & Growth-Stage Brand Leaders

What you’ll get out of this course

You'll get total access to my paid and unreleased <a href="https://www.notion.so/@kira" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Notion templates</a>, created from the frameworks I've developed over 10+ years of operating brands at growing tech companies like Gusto, Brex, and Notion—plus my in-depth voiceover and context on how to get the most from them.

25+ real-life templates for scaling a world-class brand (that you can use right away) 

Apply actionable brand measurement strategies at all stages of growth, yielding insights you can actually use. Proactively navigate conversations with senior leadership so they invest in brand, keeping the brand front and center throughout organizational shifts &amp; planning cycles.

Create the buy-in & alignment you need to build a loved brand that drives growth

Analyze and level up your team's abilities in developing and executing global, brand-led growth campaigns that involve all key functions of marketing: PMM, social, content &amp; community, and growth marketing—with or without agency support.

Build award-winning, recognizable brand campaigns that also boost morale—not burn teams out

Practice tactical approaches to leading through major moments of change, especially rebrands—that you can also apply in strategic pivots, brand refreshes, reorgs, or roadmap/audience changes. Change management is just one of the critical skills we'll practice.

Confidence in surviving—and piloting—critical moments, like rebrands

Take the growth-focused approach to Brand Leadership—with 25+ templates for getting buy-in, building campaigns, & proving your brand's value

Kira Klaas

VP, Corporate Marketing & Global Brand (Later, Notion, Brex, Gusto)

Cohort 5

Cohort 6

Don't wake up wondering what to do every day. Know that you've got an engine of job search working for you. The problem:Tech hiring has changed dramatically. Mass layoffs, shrinking headcounts, and decreasing venture capital has changed the math. There are more candidates than ever competing for a small number of roles. The competition is intense. The solution:Since 2019, our strategies have helped tech professionals secure over $400,000,000 in job offers. These clear, actionable systems get people more interviews, help candidates pass those interviews with flying colors, and land people top-of-market offers, even in this rough market. 80% of our clients choose between multiple offers. Your instructor:Sherveen Mashayekhi, Founder &amp; CEO of Free Agency• Backed by Maveron, Resolute, Bloomberg Beta, &amp; more• Product leader and technologist with a decade in hiring tech• Advisor and coach to tech executives across NYC and SF Proven results:• Hundreds of placements every year in product, engineering, design, marketing, and more• $400M+ in total offers since 2019, with &gt;80% of clients picking between multiple offers• $15.35M raised from industry-leading investors, executives, and 30+ of our own clients Frustrated by low response rates? Learn how to triple replies and uncover opportunities before anyone else. No gimmicks and no referrals necessary. Struggling to tell your story? Master storytelling about your career at a fundamental level, preparing you for any question or context. Worried about the competition? Implement frameworks to do better research, understand employers, and intentionally stand out at every stage. Course content: Day 1: Lay the foundations (docs + systems)﻿• Templates for resumes, cover letters, cold emails, LinkedIn, + so much more• Systems and tools to use to make the job search painless and efficient• Behind-the-scenes of ATS, LinkedIn Recruiter, &amp; other employer systems Day 2: Flood your calendar with interviews﻿• Advanced job finding techniques, including Boolean &amp; semantic search﻿• Actionable steps to take after submitting an app to 3x your response rate﻿• Strategies and templates to get to know someone at any company (but for real) Day 3: Win over recruiters &amp; hiring managers﻿• Masterclass: Personal pitch and career storytelling (prev. client: "game-changing!")﻿• Repeatable methods for identifying and leveraging recruiter and HM incentives﻿• Win outside the room: templates and nuances for pre- and post-interview comms Day 4: Beat the competition in the interview cycle﻿• Advanced coaching to become stellar at panel rounds, exec chats, case studies, interview homework, etc.﻿• First-of-its-kind framework for interview debriefs + analysis, enabling in-cycle adjustments and "hero stories"﻿• Deep dives on behavioral questions, leadership, end-of-interview moments - be the unforgettable candidate Day 5: Negotiate like a pro and secure the role﻿• Framework: how to seal the deal - to be the #1 pick instead of #2 - and take discrete actions toward winning the job • Behind-the-scenes of compensation systems, databases, and formulas used by companies to calculate offers﻿• Systems and templates for understanding, evaluating, and negotiating an offer (incl. scripts) Plus...﻿• What's the deal with 'hidden jobs,' ATS keyword matching, referrals... get the truth!﻿• Methods of analogy and loop-storytelling, incl. ways to enhance recall + fit through thank you notes, emails, and phone calls • Analysis of all stakeholders and incentives inside an interview process • &amp; so much more Job search has fundamentally shifted. In 2021, a senior PM or an engineering VP was so scarce and hot in the market that it took just weeks for them to find a compelling job with a top-of-market salary. In 2024, a senior PM job receives hundreds of qualified applicants, and dozens who are specifically qualified within the particular sub-industry of the company in question. And so you&nbsp;need&nbsp;to stand out. You need to look different on LinkedIn and in an email inbox. You need to tell your story in a way that goes beyond the "academic right answer," and instead differentiates you from your next peer over. Because how else is a hiring panel supposed to decide to pick you instead of that next person? And where do former clients now work?Companies like Snapdocs, Airbnb, Mozilla, Spotify, Fastly, TikTok, theScore, Zoox, Zola, Cruise, HBO, Kajabi, Lyft, Meta, mParticle, GitHub, Roblox, Peloton, Verizon, Tesla, Notion, Asana, Drift, Instacraft, Reddit, Yelp, Google, American Express, Clover Health, Upwork, Sonder, Oura, Pepsi, Dropbox, SoFi, the NYT, Amazon, Square, Check, Addepar, Electronic Arts, Disney, MLB, Angi, Shortcut, Coinbase, Lob, Roku, Rho, Cash App, Zoom, Motion, Matterport, Twitch, Gong, Chargebee, Wonderschool, The Athletic, January, Newfront, DraftKings, Expedia, Zillow, Shopify, just to name a few.&nbsp;Seriously, this is just a quick few. We're everywhere.

Redesign your job search process and interview strategy to compete and win.

Provide a brief description for each module as a way to sell the value of what students will be learning throughout the course.

First Module

Second Module

Third Module

If you can't make it, you will receive a recording of any particular session after it happens.

Every weekday for a week.

Do the homework during the course schedule and you'll receive specific and in-depth feedback. Take it with you afterward to use for future practice and refinement.

Async projects.

Ambitious individual contributors, managers and directors, and VPs already in tech. Minimum 3+ years of experience.

We're technologists who understand the nuances of product management, engineering, design, marketing, operations, &amp; everything in between.

You're actively job searching in tech or are planning a move in the next 6 months.

Who is this course for

You'll get systems and structures for every step of the job search process, built by people who know how hiring really happens, enabling you to take intentional actions at every step.

An entire job search engine, from your resume to your final offer

You'll see what an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) actually looks like, how recruiters use it, what LinkedIn Recruiter looks like, a live preview of a compensation database, alongside all the insights + nuances of how these systems are used (for + against) you. Get the intel!

Behind-the-scenes previews of what it all looks and feels like for employers

You don't have to start from scratch. Our templates, frameworks, and worksheets are proven in the tech job market. Start from strength!

Templates, frameworks, worksheets for your entire job search journey

We'll take your interview skills to the top 1%. Past students have put it best: "The interview and storytelling coaching was unbelievable. I'm going to be a better storyteller and negotiator for the rest of my life."

Advanced coaching to make you a STELLAR storyteller and interviewee

And even in 2024 and 2025, there's room to ensure you win not just a great job, but one that pays you well. Our negotiation framework will ensure you're politely but firmly capable of moving up any given offer, set up a competitive offer scenario, and avoid settling.

Data and frameworks to ensure you win & negotiate a top-of-market offer

Take control of your job search. Implement a proven system to get you interviews, win you the next round, and land you a high-paying offer.

Sherveen Mashayekhi

Founder & CEO @ Free Agency; fmr. Product Leader @ Stella (AI job matching), Toptal (jobs marketplace), founder @ JobHero (job search tools)

Cohort 3

Cohort 4

Most people think that corporate partnerships are about selling and pitching, it’s really about listening, planning, and collaborating. Position your startup to work with corporates and win that first pilot, proof-of-concept, or deal.

Stop pitching and start listening

<ul><li>Knowing who is the customer is not always as easy as it seems and picking the right markets to focus on is life or death for your startup.</li></ul>

What markets do you want to reach?

<ul><li>You'll be able to identify key decision makers in your target customer and tailor your message to speak directly to them. </li><li>﻿You'll practice finding and listening for keywords that point to their biggest pain points which keep them up at night.</li></ul>

How do you map stakeholders?

<ul><li>See what it takes to get people over the hump and try before they buy. </li><li>Find ways for you to introduce new concepts and behaviors into a big company culture.</li></ul>

De-risking your solution

<ul><li>Demonstrate the case studies or proof points you need to keep growing and eventually scale!</li></ul>

Get the social proof to scale

Let's plan to test, learn, and iterate right away in your business.

Weekly projects

Course Schedule

Founders and CEOsYou want to be more strategic in your approach when identifying the best markets and industries.

Business DevelopersYou want to find the right decision makers and establish traction by partnering with big companies.

Marketers and Product ManagersYou want to make progress even if you don't have product-market fit. We'll focus on how to get going.

Key outcomes

Be more strategic when it comes to market size and sectors, find the best industries and decision makers who need their products, then understand how these prospects think.&nbsp;

Get the right strategic footing

Conduct world class customer development. Everyone's got problems in big companies. So are you good at identifying them? That's the secret to great customer development that makes your product better and creates new channels for your business.

Solve Valuable Problems for your Future Customers

How do you ask people to take a bet on you? I'll share the importance of building a pilot program. Together, we'll go create one. You will de-risk your startup's product/service for decision-makers so they will advocate for you.

De-Risk your Solution for Decision Makers

You'll need social proof to succeed. Turns that first win into a compelling case study for others to follow

Develop Results that Produce Momentum

Discover the secrets to influencing decision-makers and designing a pilot program that gets a YES. (Now in a one-day workshop).

Vijay Rajendran

20+ years of investing in and supporting entrepreneurs on their journeys

Cohort 7

Cohort 8

Breaking into Product Management is not easy. I know; I've supported over 4,000+ professionals in the past 8 years&nbsp;to break into Product management. I've worked with top institutions like General Assembly, Melbourne Business School, Harvard Innovation Labs and my school at Product Academy to help people make the career transition. ---This is a 10-week COHORT with 40+ HOURS of async content and WEEKLY 1.5-hour practice sessions with a cohort size of 12 to 14 passionate and&nbsp;ambitious tech professionals. ❤️ Our 5 Step Process Over the next 10 weeks:This course will prepare you for the 12-month journey with knowledge, experience and a cohort of accountable peers to prepare for job opportunities. ✅ Step 1: Understanding the foundations (Weeks 1-2): Understand PM Basics, Business, and CustomersGain a strong foundation in Product Management, exploring what PMs do, the skills required, and how to align business goals with customer needs. ✅ Step 2: Strategy &amp; Discovery (Weeks 3-4): Develop Product Strategy and Identify OpportunitiesLearn how to craft a product strategy, assess market dynamics, and uncover customer insights to define valuable opportunities. ✅ Step 3: Roadmapping &amp; Execution (Weeks 5-6): Build Roadmaps and Deliver ValueTranslate strategy into actionable roadmaps while managing execution, technical feasibility, and product launches. ✅ Step 4. Interview Prep (Weeks 7-9): Master Product Sense, Analytics, and Behavioral InterviewsPrepare for the most challenging aspects of PM interviews, including product sense, analytics, and behavioural assessments. ✅ Step 5. Career Launch (Week 10): Build Your Brand and Nail Your Job SearchPolish your profile, create a job strategy, and position yourself to land your first PM role with confidence. 💡 What you'll get: - Proven, Real-World Approach: I quit my job, moved to the U.S., and restarted my career to validate that my teachings actually work. Through countless rejections, rebuilding my network, and landing a role in a double unicorn company. I’ve discarded theoretical fluff and distilled what&nbsp;actually works—I’m living proof of the results you can achieve. - Personalized Attention, Tight-Knit Cohorts: With only 12–14 carefully selected participants per cohort, I prioritize building camaraderie and providing personal guidance. This isn’t a mass-market course; it’s an intimate, hands-on experience designed to support you every step of the way. - Lifetime Refund Guarantee: If my teachings don’t work for you, I offer a 100% Lifetime Refund—no time limits, no questions asked (except how I can improve). I stand by your success and am invested in your journey, even years after the course. ---❤️ Preparing you for your Product Career Journey Breaking into Product Management takes about 12 months, and you can't get 'certified' as a PM, unlike what most institutions sell. Here's what actually happens based on what I've seen coaching hundreds of students: - Most people take about 6 - 12 months to transition into the Product Manager role. Depending on their experience, skills and job market opportunities - The&nbsp;first 6 months of the journey&nbsp;involve having the right knowledge before embarking on the competitive job market. Otherwise, you'll get rejected so many times you'll give up.&nbsp;- The next 6 months of the journey focuses on building a network, marketing yourself, and seizing opportunities. The trick is to build a pipeline of opportunities and be ready when the experience/market fit role comes. (Of course, if you have a background in Business, Design, or Engineering, this process can be quicker.) 💎 WHAT'S THE ROI? Besides the joy of building products to help people solve problems and leaving a legacy in this world... - Product Managers get paid $120K - $150K on average and can get up to $500K-$1M in more prominent companies.(https://www.levels.fyi/t/product-manager?countryId=254) So this is why most people in Tech SCALE into a Product role; it's a great role with a high ceiling. 💡 WHO WILL YOU BE LEARNING FROM? You'll be learning directly from me, Dave Wang (aka Product Dave) 👋 I've been doing Product for 17+ Years. Not just 'work-experience but 'product-experience'. I started from the bottom up as a Junior PM and worked my way to Product Leadership roles at Linktree, Expedia, Vodafone, CommBank, and Airtasker. I wanted to follow the same path as my students so I quit my $250K+ job and moved from Australia to the US.&nbsp;Starting over as a Product Manager—building my brand, networking, facing rejections, and trying again. After&nbsp;8 months of rejections, I finally landed a role as a Senior Product Manager in a Unicorn company within the industry I love. Starting again has been humbling, but the best thing is that&nbsp;I know what I teach works, not just in Australia but worldwide. You’ll learn from behind the scenes as a BEGINNER, a PRACTITIONER and a HIRING MANAGER. You can learn more about me here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/productdave/ 🤔 WHY AM I BUILDING THIS COURSE? The common heart-wrenching mistake I've seen a lot of people is they pay $5K to $10K for a Certificate and realise the Certificates don't even help them get callbacks for interviews. That's because there are NO Certificates for product management are recognised by the industry.(Anyone telling you otherwise is lying to you) The only way to break into Product Management is through learning, doing, and networking. In fact, without any certifications or fancy degrees, I have helped hundreds of people secure Product Manager roles in companies like Amazon, Canva, Zendesk, Atlassian, and many others. ❤️ MY PROMISE TO YOU I've seen so much success in my course that I can guarantee a Lifetime Refund.&nbsp;If you've attended the class and completed the work and find it was a waste of your time. I'll give you a 100% refund at any point in your career, now or later.&nbsp;Just reach out, and we'll issue a full refund. The only question I'll ask is how I can improve. Another promise I want to make to you is that this is a highly curated cohort and only 12-14 people will be selected each time. If you're still 'exploring' if Product Management is the right role for you - check out my self-paced course here: https://www.productacademy.io/ Learning from self-paced material is the best way to start for people still exploring. (Scroll down to the download section for the guide on why) Plus, I will be here when you are ready.

Your Product Career Starts Here

If your events are recurring and at the same time, it might be easiest to use a single line item to communicate your course schedule to students

Tuesdays & Thursdays

Feel free to type out dates as your title as a way to communicate information about specific live sessions or other events.

May 7, 2022

Schedule items can also be used to convey commitments outside of specific time slots (like weekly projects or daily office hours).

Mid-Career Professionals You are a mid-career professional eager to transition into product management role. (BA, Design, Eng, PO, Project)

3 - 6 Months in your PM Career Transition journeyYou've ready enough books, completed self-paced course and you're ready for the next stage

The “Unofficial” Product Manager&nbsp;You’re already performing the duties of a Product Manager but lack the official title.

<ul><li>Gain&nbsp;first-hand knowledge&nbsp;of what a PM does through theory and real-life examples.</li><li>Develop a&nbsp;plan&nbsp;to network, build a personal brand, and navigate interviews effectively.</li><li>Formulate&nbsp;groups&nbsp;that collaborate to achieve the shared goal of breaking into Product Management.</li></ul>

Break Into PM With Realistic Knowledge, a Plan and a System for Ongoing Support

<ul><li>Multiple workshops with project created to help you apply what you have learned.</li><li>Optional student showcased on the Product Academy student alumni page. To help you build a brand for yourself.</li></ul>

Collaborative Projects to Help You Apply What You Learn (With a Final Presentation Listed on the Alumni Profile Page)

<ul><li>Granted access to a Miro Board of 20+ tools to help you through your journey</li><li>Tools will be filled out as we progress through the course.</li><li>Students are encouraged to take inspiration from each other; it’s not a competition.</li></ul>

20+ Exclusive PM Tools My Team and I Use Daily

<ul><li>Personalized mentorship demystifying insider secrets to acing PM interviews.</li><li>The secrets to walking into your next PM interview with total confidence, even if you've never actually worked as a project manager before.</li></ul>

 A Branding Blueprint to Make Your Profile Irresistible to Recruiters

<ul><li>You will create a job strategy to highlight only the best jobs that suit you. </li><li>The secrets to creating a PM-specific resume that gets attention.</li><li>How to craft the perfect LinkedIn profile that gets recruiting managers hooked (even without any PM-related experience).</li></ul>

Job Strategy 2 Pager + Resume + Linkedin Updates

<ul><li>You'll receive 12 Months access to our Monthly hiring manager Q&amp;A within the community ($249 value) </li><li>Free Access to the alumni slack channel and your cohorts for life-time support</li></ul>

12 Months Access to Exclusive Monthly Q&A with Hiring Managers

Learn How to Break Into Product Management With Practical Knowledge and a Supportive Community

David Wang (Product Dave)

This cohort is designed for students who are based in Australia and the US West Coast timezones

Lightning Lessons

How to find and join the next breakout startup