#5: Lessons from a Liberal Arts Major Turned Product Leader & VC - Diana Berlin (Partner @ Matrix)

Welcome to another episode of Supra Insider!

In this episode, Marc and Ben are joined by Diana Kimball Berlin, a Partner at Matrix who invests in early-stage B2B SaaS & AI companies, from concept to Series A. Diana also sits on the boards of Accord and Meshcapade. Prior to becoming an investor, Diana spent 5 years at Quip, working up from an IC product manager to VP of Product. Before Quip, Diana was a senior PM at SoundCloud and has held roles at Kickstarter and Microsoft.

In our chat with Diana, we cover a lot of ground:

* Diana’s path from a liberal arts major to product management and investing

* Why Diana likes liberal arts as a background for PMs and investors

* How publishing writing has benefitted Diana in her life and career and why people should consider being more open with sharing their thinking (and what leaders can do to support their team in being more public online)

* When founders should consider hiring their first product manager

* What makes for the best relationships between CEOs and product executives

* How product leaders can gauge compatibility with a company

* And more!

Diana is an extremely thoughtful investor and product leader. We hope you enjoy this conversation and look forward to hearing your feedback. Thanks for listening!

Links

* Diana’s LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianakimball/

* Diana’s website: https://dianaberlin.com/

* Diana’s Substack

* Diana’s post about whether business school is worth it for PMs: https://dianaberlin.com/posts/the-mba-decision-guide-for-product-managers 

* Lina Colucci: https://www.youtube.com/@Lina_Colucci

Hosts

* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/

* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit suprainsider.substack.com