Telegram only has 1 product manager - how!

I love using Telegram (in fact Telegram is the chat platform that CPO resides on)

Their growth as a chat/social network is quite simply incredible.

But the most interesting tidbit I just learned about Telegram this week was how lean they are manpower wise.

They only have 30 software engineers and 1 product manager (their CEO and founder, Durov)

This makes me wonder:

1. How should startups grow without hiring too many people, but what does it mean for us product managers who want to work in startups?

2. If my company has x number of product managers and yet we are only at y% of Telegram's DAU / performance - what does it say about my company (or its bloatedness)?

3. If I were the founder/ceo/product manager of my product (like Durov) how would I grow my product to be as successful as Telegram?

Of course we as product managers will never be able to wield as much power as Durov has as a product manager in Telegram to determine product strategy.

But this tidbit of Telegram can teach us much about how a lean company can grow exponentially even with low manpower, by shipping fast and tapping on product led growth!

https://www.benzinga.com/news/24/04/38311301/telegram-founder-tells-tucker-carlson-that-billion-user-platform-operates-lean-hr-free-with-only-30#

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Joshua Lum

Most product management communities today exist to help people break into product management (which is great, don’t get me wrong), but what happens once one becomes a product manager? Curious Product is a community for genuinely helpful, humble yet ambitious, actively curious product managers to learn from each other, and help each other learn product management skills in a fun environment. This community resides mainly on Telegram, where all the fun happens! But all the cool resources and announcements also happen on Nas io. Join the Curious Product community today to encounter, learn, and practise Product management in a fresh new way! Once you are in, you will get access to <1> A Telegram group filled with other helpful product managers (PM) sharing insights and offering help as everyone supports each other to learn product management in an organised communal manner <2> Courses to help you go from an unsure and inexperienced PM to become a more curious and competent PM <3> Advanced resources like AI prompts, Notion systems, content templates and more to help you in your product management career <4> Archive of Substack articles on Product Teardowns where you can grow your product sense and get prepared for your PM interviews <5> Monthly challenges to help increase your motivation and accountability in learning and becoming a more well-rounded PM

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