“I was introduced to Darius through a colleague because I was seeking advice on making a major change to my company's freemium business model. He provided tremendous insight from his own experience and was able to deeply understand the nuances of my organization to make targeted recommendations based on our specific circumstances. His advice was invaluable in shaping our strategy and the net result was a hugely successful shift that is poised to transform our business. Further, Darius was kind enough to provide follow up guidance and additional advice as new challenges emerged. I very much appreciate his support and highly recommend anyone seeking deep product experience to reach out for guidance.”
Darius Contractor
San Francisco, California, United States
10K followers
500+ connections
10K followers
500+ connections
About
I'm a growth and product leader, angel investor and entrepreneur. I'm VP Growth at…
Activity
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Exciting news today - Common Room is being acquired by Zoom! When we started Common Room, our goal was to help go-to-market teams make sense of the…
Exciting news today - Common Room is being acquired by Zoom! When we started Common Room, our goal was to help go-to-market teams make sense of the…
Liked by Darius Contractor
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Building an AI company in Silicon Valley is always cut-throat, and I rarely take any time off. But to cheer for the USMNT in the World Cup, I had to…
Building an AI company in Silicon Valley is always cut-throat, and I rarely take any time off. But to cheer for the USMNT in the World Cup, I had to…
Liked by Darius Contractor
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Had a great trip last week to our packed Dublin office to spend time with partners, government leaders, and especially with our team. Our EMEA LATAM…
Had a great trip last week to our packed Dublin office to spend time with partners, government leaders, and especially with our team. Our EMEA LATAM…
Liked by Darius Contractor
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Dropbox OEM Auto Update
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Email Import of Attachments
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Turns out I have the fifth biggest Substack. (And one of the few in the top 10 that's not a big team) Thank you for reading, and allowing me to do…
Turns out I have the fifth biggest Substack. (And one of the few in the top 10 that's not a big team) Thank you for reading, and allowing me to do…
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After 16 wonderful years, today is my last day at LinkedIn. I've been thinking about this post for months. Then my daughter solved the conundrum. A…
After 16 wonderful years, today is my last day at LinkedIn. I've been thinking about this post for months. Then my daughter solved the conundrum. A…
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Every company has a system of record. Except the most important one. There's a CRM like Salesforce for customer relationships. A Workday for your…
Every company has a system of record. Except the most important one. There's a CRM like Salesforce for customer relationships. A Workday for your…
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There’s a ton of talk about the massive “cultural moment” sports is having right now. Most people point to the obvious drivers: a collective hunger…
There’s a ton of talk about the massive “cultural moment” sports is having right now. Most people point to the obvious drivers: a collective hunger…
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A customer showed me their Town session last week. It had hundreds of messages in it. I asked what it was. "Oh that's my session for today." They'd…
A customer showed me their Town session last week. It had hundreds of messages in it. I asked what it was. "Oh that's my session for today." They'd…
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For World Otter Day, Otter.ai partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Network to help protect these amazing creatures. Otter saving otters. Go team!…
For World Otter Day, Otter.ai partnered with the Wildlife Conservation Network to help protect these amazing creatures. Otter saving otters. Go team!…
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Creators are the big story at Cannes. They are becoming the some of the most trusted voices, and in a world where trust is scarce, creators are the…
Creators are the big story at Cannes. They are becoming the some of the most trusted voices, and in a world where trust is scarce, creators are the…
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I'm very excited about my new role at Diablo Firesafe Council. It's great to be back in the nonprofit sector! Give us a follow if you'd like to stay…
I'm very excited about my new role at Diablo Firesafe Council. It's great to be back in the nonprofit sector! Give us a follow if you'd like to stay…
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This week, our long-time COO & President, Luna Federici, becomes CEO of PicnicAI. It’s rare that a founder gets to feel this much confidence passing…
This week, our long-time COO & President, Luna Federici, becomes CEO of PicnicAI. It’s rare that a founder gets to feel this much confidence passing…
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I haven't opened ChatGPT or Claude since I rebooted my computer 2 weeks ago. I used to use both even when I had Town before this but at some point I…
I haven't opened ChatGPT or Claude since I rebooted my computer 2 weeks ago. I used to use both even when I had Town before this but at some point I…
Liked by Darius Contractor
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Today is my 30th birthday 🎈 I thought I’d reflect on the decade that has been: 💵 Raised $1BN 🚀 170 investments 🦄 18 unicorn investments…
Today is my 30th birthday 🎈 I thought I’d reflect on the decade that has been: 💵 Raised $1BN 🚀 170 investments 🦄 18 unicorn investments…
Liked by Darius Contractor
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Devon O'Rourke
Confidence might be the most underrated skill in product marketing. In the latest episode of Embracing Erosion, I sat down with Jason Oakley - founder of Productive PMM and DemoDash - to unpack how confidence (or the lack of it) shapes everything for PMMs. We talked about how founders can unintentionally erode confidence with unclear feedback or shifting priorities, and why protecting a PMM’s confidence directly impacts speed, clarity, and execution. We also got into: ⚙️ How to build systems before layering on AI and automation 🎯 Why interactive demos are some of the highest-intent assets in B2B 💪 What it really takes to thrive as a founding PMM in 2025/26 If you’ve ever been the “first marketer” or a PMM trying to do it all, this one will hit close to home. Link to the full pod in the comments 👇
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Olivia Teich
I was CPO at Blend before their $4 billion IPO. We rejected the “forward deployed engineer” Palantir model that everyone is copying now. Here’s why: Blend could have followed the forward-deployed engineer approach. Both our CEO and CTO were early Palantir. They'd seen it work. Instead, we built a SaaS product with core components. Move fast, iterate, use data to learn. Not custom code for every client. That Palantir model is having a resurgence. Now Sierra, Decagon, and others are hiring forward-deployed engineers. But it’s not the right approach for every company. It’s fundamentally the wrong answer for Assembled’s customers. Here's what we understand about support teams and why we’re not going the forward deployed route: Customer Support teams are used to getting no resources and no support. On the surface, you'd think they'd be excited about engineers building custom solutions. "Finally, someone's offering us developers!" The reality is support teams are terrified of getting help they can't afford to keep. Support teams are wary because they know the math. They don't have budget for expensive, scarce resources. At some point the shoe drops. The engineers disappear when priorities shift. And custom solutions break. Support is left holding the bag with something they can't maintain. They're resource-starved by design. The idea of a dependency on resources they can't control is terrifying. So instead, the goal should be to give support teams the ability to manage, change, and solve their own problems. Not dependencies on engineers they can't keep. Smart, competent people who teach them to do it themselves. Palantir wasn't even a product company for years. They were a custom development shop with reusable components. Show up, build something bespoke, maybe extract learnings. That's not scalable for any but the largest support teams who need sustainability. Forward-deployed engineers are the new shiny object. I wasn’t a fan of it at Blend. And I’m not a fan today either. What I see in the customer support space is that teams need empowerment, not dependency. I want the teams we work with to be able to say: "I love that you’re partnering with me. And I love that I can do this myself too." That's the difference between building a product and building a consulting practice.
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