Customer discovery (interviews, observing behavior, validating pain points)
Product sense (prioritizing features, defining a clear user experience, making trade-offs)
Growth thinking (turning product usage into sign-ups, referrals, and upgrades)
Clear communication and storytelling (to customers, team, and investors)
Hiring and leadership (building a small high-impact team, coaching, accountability)
Business fundamentals (pricing, unit economics, cash management, forecasting)
Technical fluency (enough to make smart decisions with engineers and understand feasibility)
Sales and go-to-market basics (positioning, outreach, partnerships, closing early customers)
Data literacy (setting metrics, reading dashboards, running simple experiments)
Resilience and decision-making under uncertainty