What do the hottest companies look for when they hire a CPO or head of product? I put the question to three people who sit in these searches every week: Lindsay Keith of Daversa, Andrew Abramson of Fusion Talent, and Caroline Horn of a16z. We had a similar conversation in January 2026, and the market has moved a lot since. A year ago, founders wanted a narrow profile: a former founder, hands-on, willing to work 9-9-6 hours. That profile hasn't gone away fully, but as companies mature past their first head of product, founders increasingly know what they want. The winning profile is the executive builder: someone senior enough to run the function and still close enough to the work to build.
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Key topics:
• Why founders want senior leaders who never stopped building
• Why "go be an IC" stopped applying to executive searches about six months ago
• Staying "close to the metal": how companies test whether an executive is really hands-on
• Why working sessions with the team have replaced the take-home presentation
• The attributes that matter more than the title
• Why technical depth is now a must-have for product leaders
• In-office expectations, and why 9-9-6 went quiet but didn't disappear
• Comp as a pressure cooker
• Why AI fluency will be table stakes by next summer, and what will differentiate candidates instead
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Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
02:28 Meet our guests from Daversa, Fusion Talent, and a16z
04:58 How much has demand for product leaders grown this year?
06:14 The two types of companies hiring a CPO right now
09:34 Why founders under-hired and are now up-leveling the role
12:15 How companies assess whether an executive is really hands-on
14:25 Working sessions have shifted from presenting to building together
18:00 The profile of candidates closing searches in the last 90 days
20:50 Why later-stage companies want builders who can attract AI-pilled PMs
23:30 Should executives found a company to boost their careers?
25:00 The attributes that matter
27:10 Do AI companies need leaders with AI experience?
31:04 Building AI reps outside your day job
33:08 In-office expectations and whether 9-9-6 has cooled
35:15 Can executives with families keep up with the pace?
39:12 How to assess a company's culture before you join
44:25 How to evaluate a paper-rich offer at a high valuation
49:05 Competing with Meta, Google, and the labs on comp
51:58 Predictions for next summer: researchers, physical AI, and technical depth
56:18 Why AI fluency will stop differentiating candidates
57:24 Domain depth as the next differentiator
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Referenced:
• a16z
• Abridge
• Airbnb
• Airtable
• Anthropic
• Atoms
• Autodesk
• Bending Spoons
• ChatGPT
• Claude
• Cursor
• Datadog
• Daversa
• Decagon
• DoorDash
• Figma
• Fusion Talent
• Google
• Gusto
• Harvey
• Meta
• Miro
• Nash
• OpenAI
• Sharp Performance
• Sierra
• Square
• Substack
• Travis Kalanick
• Uber
• Vercel
• xAI
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Brought to you by:
• Chargebee—Billing and monetization infrastructure for the AI era
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Where to find Nikhyl
• Twitter/X
• LinkedIn
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Where to find Lindsay
• LinkedIn
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Where to find Andrew
• LinkedIn
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Where to find Caroline
• LinkedIn
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Join The Skip
• Skip Coach
• Skip Community
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Find The Skip
• Website
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• YouTube
• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
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Don't forget to subscribe to The Skip to hear me coach you through timely career lessons. Access exclusive sessions from 100+ top product leaders at skip.coach. If you're interested in joining me on a future call, send me a note on LinkedIn, Threads, or Twitter. You can also email me at nikhyl@skip.community
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