Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

chevron_right

Unconventional product lessons from Binance, N26, Google, more | Mayur Kamat (CPO at N26, ex-Binance Head of Product)

whatshot 841 snips

May 22, 2025

Guest

Mayur Kamat

Mayur Kamat, Chief Product Officer at N26, shares his extensive product management journey, previously leading at Binance and Google. He emphasizes the need to tackle high-leverage problems and the importance of aligning personal strengths with career paths in fintech. Discussion includes the innovative culture at Binance that thrives on swift decision-making and ownership. Mayur advocates for a hypothesis-driven approach to product strategy, balancing rapid experimentation with incremental wins for long-term success.

01:37:56

forum

Ask episode

web_stories

AI Snips

view_agenda

Chapters

menu_book

Books

auto_awesome

Transcript

info_circle

Episode notes

00:00 / 00:00

Binance's Unique Leadership Model

Binance grew from zero to a $400 billion valuation in five years with unconventional leadership structure.
CEO CZ had 55 direct reports leading to daily leadership meetings and rapid decision-making culture.

00:00 / 00:00

Accelerate Career with Growth & Strengths

Work at fast-growing companies to accelerate learning through compounding.
Focus on roles that align with your strengths rather than trying to fix weaknesses.

00:00 / 00:00

Avoid Early Career Compensation Focus

Avoid optimizing for compensation early in your career.
Most compensation is earned in the later years of your career.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Unpacking the Unique Culture and Operations of Binance

04:41 • 6min

chevron_right

Navigating Change in Cryptocurrency Onboarding

10:13 • 6min

chevron_right

Navigating Career Growth in Fintech

16:06 • 26min

chevron_right

Rethinking Product Strategy: From Execution to Insight

41:42 • 3min

chevron_right

Empowering Product Management through Experimentation

44:47 • 7min

chevron_right

Navigating Career Growth in Fintech and Tech Hubs

51:44 • 33min

chevron_right

Unlocking Career Potential Through Strengths

01:25:12 • 6min

chevron_right

Exploring Innovative Banking and Creative Apps

01:31:01 • 2min

chevron_right

Exploring Decision-Making and Culinary Adventures

01:33:16 • 2min

chevron_right

Connecting with the Audience: Opportunities and User-Friendly Banking

01:35:40 • 2min

chevron_right

The Five Kinds of Wealth

Sahil Bloom

StrengthsFinder 2.0

Tom Rath

StrengthsFinder 2.0 is a bestselling business book that helps individuals, teams, managers, and leaders understand and apply their strengths. The book, based on Gallup research, includes hundreds of strategies for using your natural talents and an access code to take the CliftonStrengths assessment. This assessment provides personalized reports, including your top five CliftonStrengths and a Signature Theme Report, to help you develop your strengths and achieve your goals.

Mayur Kamat is the chief product officer at N26—a $9 billion neobank serving over 7 million customers in 25 countries—where he leads product, design, data, and research. Prior to N26, Mayur was Head of Product at Binance, growing the crypto exchange to a peak $400 billion valuation. Earlier in his career, he built and scaled products at Google (Gmail Mobile, Hangouts), Microsoft, and travel unicorn Agoda.

Learn:

1. How to find and focus on the highest-leverage problems

2. Why you shouldn’t optimize for compensation early in your career

3. Why you should optimize for strengths, not weaknesses

4. Why you need to decide if you truly want the C-suite path

5. Why working at a fintech company creates exceptional PMs

6. Strategy = hypothesis × experimentation velocity

7. Small, fast wins compound faster than big, slow bets

—

Brought to you by:

• WorkOS—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs

• Paragon—Ship every SaaS integration your customers want

• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security.

—

Where to find Mayur Kamat:

• X: https://x.com/5degreez

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mayur/

—

Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

—

In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Introduction and Mayur’s background

(04:49) Working at Binance: An inside look

(18:18) Career advice for product managers

(27:00) PM career paths

(33:58) Understanding fintech customers

(36:00) Understanding your strengths

(44:46) Creating a culture of experimentation

(51:14) Hiring and developing top talent

(54:50) Building a diverse product portfolio

(57:08) Working in high talent density areas

(59:43) Personal and professional balance

(01:06:32) High-leverage opportunities and decision making

(01:14:28) AI tools in the workplace

(01:19:14) Failure corner

(01:25:11) Lightning round and final thoughts

—

Referenced:

• Binance: https://www.binance.us/

• Google: https://about.google/

• Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/

• Agoda: https://www.agoda.com

• N26: https://n26.com/

• Which companies accelerate PM careers most: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/which-companies-accelerate-your-pm

• Which companies produce the best product managers: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/which-companies-produce-the-best

• Bezos Says Work-Life Balance is a “Debilitating” Phrase: https://www.investopedia.com/news/bezos-says-worklife-balance-debilitating-phrase/

• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

• PayPal Mafia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal_Mafia

• Changpeng Zhao on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cpzhao/

• Ray Dalio on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raydalio/

• Porter’s five forces: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter%27s_five_forces_analysis

• Jonathan Rosenberg on X: https://x.com/jjrosenberg

• Aura: https://buy.aura.com/

• Intercom: https://www.intercom.com/

• Palantir: https://www.palantir.com/

• Revolut: https://www.revolut.com/

• Chime: https://www.chime.com/

• Stripe: https://stripe.com/

• Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/

• Alex Algard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexalgard

• Hiya: https://www.hiya.com/

• Brian Chesky’s new playbook: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/brian-cheskys-contrarian-approach

• Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/app

• Writer: https://writer.com/

• Google Hangouts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Hangouts

• Sundar Pichai on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sundarpichai/

• Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/landing

• House on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/ef39603f-eb90-4248-8237-f6168d7c1be1

• Big Bang Theory on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/9bde5aeb-5297-4290-b173-19a4d59cc11d

• Adolescence on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81756069

• The White Lotus on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/the-white-lotus

• Robinhood: https://robinhood.com/us/en/

• Nikita Bier’s post on X about Bible Chat: https://x.com/nikitabier/status/1915252215507210349

• Bible Chat: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bible-chat-daily-devotional/id6448849666?mt=8

• Suno: https://suno.com/home

• Disfrutar: https://www.disfrutarbarcelona.com/

—

Recommended books:

• StrengthsFinder 2.0: https://www.amazon.com/StrengthsFinder-2-0-Tom-Rath/dp/159562015X

• The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life: https://www.amazon.com/Types-Wealth-Transformative-Guide-Design/dp/059372318X

—

Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

—

Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Home Top podcasts Popular guests