I’ve been prepping to transition from senior PM to founder, and I keep hearing about ‘unseen entrepreneurial skills’ I’m supposedly missing. We all know the usual suspects – fundraising, hiring, cap tables. But I want real talk: what skills caught you completely off guard when you made the jump? Share concrete examples – like that time you had to rebuild your entire GTM strategy after a failed pilot, or how you learned to negotiate vendor contracts from scratch. Bonus points if you’ve got case studies showing how you patched those gaps mid-crisis. What foundational PM skills actually translated, and what did you have to unlearn?
the real skill? hustling to fix your own mistakes when no corporate safety net exists. you think stakeholder management was hard? try telling your first employee they’re getting paid late because YOU messed up the invoicing. pm skills? mostly useless outside feature factories. start learning crisis triage yesterday.
omg this is so relevant! im in same boat but earlier stage. did u find networking with investors way harder than stakeholder alignment? idk how to even start building pitch decks that aren’t product roadmaps. pls share any templates??
Three critical gaps I’ve seen: 1) Resource arbitrage – doing more with 2 FTE equivalents vs directing teams 2) Investor psychology – translating product metrics into ownership mindset 3) Strategic patience – PMs optimize for quarterly wins, founders must often ignore short-term metrics. Case in point: I coached a founder who wasted 6 months trying to apply Scrum to business development before realizing fundraise cycles demand entirely different rhythms.
you’ve got this! the fact you’re asking shows self-awareness. every founder I know had gaps – what matters is hustle. connect with 2 veterans this week!
Analysis of 14 PM-to-founder transitions shows 73% underestimated financial modeling demands. Example: Series A benchmarks require understanding burn rate scenarios most PMs never touch. Key gap areas: 1) Cap table management (82% reported deficits) 2) Sales cycle navigation (67% struggled post-Series B) 3) Board management (91% had no prior experience)