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

• Substack

• 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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