Frameworks for product differentiation, team building, and thinking from first principles | Ayo Omojola (Carbon Health, Cash App)
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Ayo Omojola is Chief Product Officer at Carbon Health, one of the fastest-growing and most innovative health tech companies in the world. Previously, he was a PM leader at Cash App, where he co-created the Cash Card and scaled it to a nine-figure revenue line for Square. He’s also an angel investor in companies like Mercury, Modern Treasury, Faire, and many others. In this episode, we discuss:
- How Cash App broke through the noise and became a consumer app success story
- Why small teams are better than big ones
- Hard-won lessons on team building and hiring
- Why it’s “criminal” not to connect people in your network to things that they need
- Why you sometimes shouldn’t listen to experts
- The importance of first-principles thinking
- Advice for health tech founders
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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/frameworks-for-product-differentiation-team-building-and-thinking-from-first-principles-ayo-omojola-carbon-health-cash-app/#transcript
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Where to find Ayo Omojola:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ay_o
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omojola/
- Blog: https://kunle.app/
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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/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Ayo’s background
(04:13) The story of how Ayo used Quora for discoverability
(06:44) The scale of Cash App
(07:37) What Cash App did well
(10:12) Lessons from building consumer apps
(13:08) Why it’s so important to be different
(14:08) What Ayo learned from how Square/Block operates
(16:36) How to succeed at building a startup within a startup
(19:06) How Ayo transitioned from fintech to health tech
(22:51) Why Ayo loves hiring founders
(28:32) Team-building strategies
(32:12) The importance of going deep and challenging assumptions
(36:58) Why you should always ask questions
(38:45) Lessons in leadership
(41:43) Advice for founders in the health-care space
(44:48) What Carbon Health is
(46:58) Lightning round
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Referenced:
- Ayo on Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Ayo-Omojola
- Carbon Health: https://carbonhealth.com/
- Cash App: https://cash.app/
- Lob: https://www.lob.com/
- Mailform: https://www.mailform.io/
- Venmo: https://venmo.com/
- PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/us/home
- Apple Cash: https://www.apple.com/apple-cash/
- Square: https://squareup.com/us/en/home/
- Block: https://block.xyz/
- Pinwheel: https://www.pinwheelapi.com/
- The Three-Body Problem: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032
- Children of Time: https://www.amazon.com/Children-of-Time
- Children of Memory: https://www.amazon.com/Children-Memory-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/
- Children of Ruin: https://www.amazon.com/Children-Ruin-Time-Adrian-Tchaikovsky/
- Stormlight Archive: https://www.amazon.com/Stormlight-Archive-Boxed-Set-Books/
- Fire in the Deep: https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Deep-Robert-J-Miller/
- War of the Worlds on Amazon Prime: [https://www.amazon.com/
