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For Founders3 min

Do We Need a PM?

Early-stage founders agonize over when to hire their first product manager, usually deciding too late or too early based on a gut feeling and one loud opinion.

Launch Do We Need a PM?

For founders, CTOs, early-stage teams

What it does

Get an honest read on whether it is actually time to hire your first PM, scored against how real companies made the same call.

Currently

Live and browser-only with no signup. You answer a short set of questions and get a score benchmarked against Pinterest, Figma, Ramp, Slack, and 30-plus other companies, with a clear read on whether to hire now or wait. It runs entirely in the browser, so nothing about your company leaves your device.

Recently shipped

  • Jun 3, 2026Shipped Do We Need a PM?: a first-PM readiness check scored against benchmarks from 30-plus companies.

How it's built

Browser-onlySolo

How I built it

I built this because the first-PM hire is one of the most expensive timing calls a founder makes, and most of the advice out there is just one person's war story. Scoring the decision against how a range of known companies actually handled it gives founders something steadier than a hunch to argue with. The decision I am proudest of is letting the result say wait when waiting is right: a readiness check that always says hire is just a recruiting funnel, and this one is built to tell you the truth.

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