Unconventional product lessons from Binance, N26, Google, more | Mayur Kamat (CPO at N26, ex-Binance Head of Product)
Mayur Kamat is the chief product officer at N26—a $9 billion neobank serving over 7 million customers in 25 countries—where he leads product, design, data, and research. Prior to N26, Mayur was Head of Product at Binance, growing the crypto exchange to a peak $400 billion valuation. Earlier in his career, he built and scaled products at Google (Gmail Mobile, Hangouts), Microsoft, and travel unicorn Agoda.
Learn:
- How to find and focus on the highest-leverage problems
- Why you shouldn’t optimize for compensation early in your career
- Why you should optimize for strengths, not weaknesses
- Why you need to decide if you truly want the C-suite path
- Why working at a fintech company creates exceptional PMs
- Strategy = hypothesis × experimentation velocity
- Small, fast wins compound faster than big, slow bets
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Where to find Mayur Kamat:
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Where to find Lenny:
- Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
- X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction and Mayur’s background
(04:49) Working at Binance: An inside look
(18:18) Career advice for product managers
(27:00) PM career paths
(33:58) Understanding fintech customers
(36:00) Understanding your strengths
(44:46) Creating a culture of experimentation
(51:14) Hiring and developing top talent
(54:50) Building a diverse product portfolio
(57:08) Working in high talent density areas
(59:43) Personal and professional balance
(01:06:32) High-leverage opportunities and decision making
(01:14:28) AI tools in the workplace
(01:19:14) Failure corner
(01:25:11) Lightning round and final thoughts
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Referenced:
- Binance: https://www.binance.us/
- Google: https://about.google/
- Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/
- Agoda: https://www.agoda.com
- N26: https://n26.com/
- Which companies accelerate PM careers most: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/which-companies-accelerate-your-pm
- Which companies produce the best product managers: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/which-companies-produce-the-best
- Bezos Says Work-Life Balance is a “Debilitating” Phrase: https://www.investopedia.com/news/bezos-says-worklife-balance-debilitating-phrase/
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
- PayPal Mafia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia
- Changpeng Zhao on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cpzhao/
- Ray Dalio on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raydalio/
- Porter’s five forces: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter%27s_five_forces_analysis
- Jonathan Rosenberg on X: https://x.com/jjrosenberg
- Aura: https://buy.aura.com/
- Intercom: https://www.intercom.com/
- Palantir: https://www.palantir.com/
- Revolut: https://www.revolut.com/
- Chime: https://www.chime.com/
- Stripe: https://stripe.com/
- Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/
- Alex Algard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexalgard
- Hiya: https://www.hiya.com/
- Brian Chesky’s new playbook: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/brian-cheskys-contrarian-approach
- Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/app
- Writer: https://writer.com/
- Google Hangouts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts
- Sundar Pichai on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sundarpichai/
- Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/landing
- House on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/ef39603f-eb90-4248-8237-f6168d7c1be1
- Big Bang Theory on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/9bde5aeb-5297-4290-b173-19a4d59cc11d
- Adolescence on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81756069
- The White Lotus on HBO: https://www.hbo.
