Oct 20, 2026 · 43 min · 10 segments
This is The Open Podcast, where your host Sander Mangel shares strategies and insights to help digital commerce businesses stay ahead of the curve. In this episode, Sander Mangel sits down with Elena…
I love that you say that when you're a startup, right? You have to sell subscriptions.
That's your strategy, right? But as a company grows, there might be new owners, some private equity comes in.
How does that influence, let's say, the answer, depending on who might fund it?
And again, I look at this from mostly my experience because as a product leader, I was looking at all of the things, agile product management practices, and just listening to customers and then translating that to the roadmap.
And the roadmap typically looks really sound and manageable and great, inspiring even in cases, but sometimes it wasn't right roadmap for what the business needs.
So as I started mentoring and advising companies on product strategy, I had one situation which was quite interesting for me as well.
So I had this lady, so she was a head of product, and she was pitching to her leadership on one initiative.
And she came to me because she's saying, like, I know that this is the right thing.
How can I say it in a different way? And the old me would say, well, of course, that's actually, I know, maybe the leadership team doesn't understand.
But as I started looking more into the business side of things, I realized that that company was owned by the private equity firm.
I love that you say that when you're a startup, right? You have to sell subscriptions.
That's your strategy, right? But as a company grows, there might be new owners, some private equity comes in.
How does that influence, let's say, the answer, depending on who might fund it?
And again, I look at this from mostly my experience because as a product leader, I was looking at all of the things, agile product management practices, and just listening to customers and then translating that to the roadmap.
And the roadmap typically looks really sound and manageable and great, inspiring even in cases, but sometimes it wasn't right roadmap for what the business needs.
So as I started mentoring and advising companies on product strategy, I had one situation which was quite interesting for me as well.
So I had this lady, so she was a head of product, and she was pitching to her leadership on one initiative.
And she came to me because she's saying, like, I know that this is the right thing.
How can I say it in a different way? And the old me would say, well, of course, that's actually, I know, maybe the leadership team doesn't understand.
But as I started looking more into the business side of things, I realized that that company was owned by the private equity firm.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
