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Founders, if you hire someone junior as your first PMM
And expect them to do EVERYTHING
You NEED to Invest in their development
It’s been about a year since I started my job board for founding PMM roles
A total of 545 Founding PMM job openings
The titles being offered were:
➡️ 366 “Product Marketing Managers”
➡️ 114 “Senior Product Marketing Managers”
➡️ 65 were for something like Principal, Leader, or Director
➡️ Only 3 that specifically referred to the role as “Founding PMM”
Although many of the PMM job descriptions asked for 5+ years experience.
It’s likely that they’ll end up hiring someone more junior.
I see this all the time.
But even still. The average PMM with a few years experience hasn’t had the chance to do a lot of the stuff you see in the sample job description. And believe me, most of them look like this.
For most founding PMMs, a lot of the job is brand new.
Not to mention:
🚨 Nobody else in the company has product marketing experience
🚨 You don’t have the time to personally coach them
🚨 They are getting hammered with requests
🚨 They have zero influence across the company
The odds are stacked against them.
And your product marketing function too.
I understand that not every startup can afford to hire an experienced product marketing leader as their founding PMM. Even if you have the budget, they’re hard to find.
But you CAN afford to provide them with the three Cs:
- Coaching
- Courses
- Communities
A hungry PMM, paired with the right support network and resources, can make a big impact at an early-stage startup.
You’re not only investing in their personal growth
But the success of your product marketing function
Which is about as mission critical as it gets.