# A community for founders who do the product job.

> Product Circle is a curated community for founders and PMs in India: office hours with VCs and founders, co-founder and founding PM openings, AMAs and chai meetups.

Source: https://productcircle.club/for-founders · Updated 2026-10-16

Product Circle is a by-application community for startup founders and product managers in India, run by the team behind Mehman. Founders get office hours with VCs and founders who have raised, built and hired, a board for co-founder and founding PM openings, a weekly AMA, product teardowns and a monthly chai meetup. More than 250 PMs and founders have joined.

## Why founders join a founder community

Founding a company is a lonely job with a long list of first times: first hire, first raise, first pricing decision, first time letting someone go. Your investors and team help, but they each have a stake in your answer. What founders often lack is a room of people who:

- **Have done it before** and can tell you what they'd do differently.
- **Are doing it now** and know what this month's market feels like.
- **Understand product**, because most early-stage founders are also the company's first product manager.

That last point is why Product Circle brings founders and PMs together. Founders get product thinking from experienced PMs; PMs get a close look at how companies are built. Our guide to [product management communities in India](https://productcircle.club/blog/product-management-communities-in-india) covers other options too.

## What Product Circle gives startup founders

| If you need to...                         | Use this                                               | Rhythm                                |
| ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------- |
| Pressure-test a raise, hire or big bet    | [Office hours](https://productcircle.club/membership/office-hours)               | 20-minute slots with VCs and founders |
| Hire a founding PM or find a co-founder   | [Jobs and opportunities board](https://productcircle.club/membership/jobs-board) | Always open                           |
| Learn from founders a few steps ahead     | [Weekly AMA](https://productcircle.club/membership/weekly-ama)                   | 45 minutes, every week                |
| Get ideas worth stealing for your product | [Product teardowns](https://productcircle.club/membership/product-teardowns)     | Every two weeks                       |
| Be easy to find for the right people      | [Member intros](https://productcircle.club/membership/member-intros)             | When you join                         |
| Talk honestly, in person                  | [Chai meetup](https://productcircle.club/membership/chai-meetups)                | Monthly                               |

### Office hours with people who have raised, built and hired

Office hours are 20-minute slots with VCs and founders who have been through it. Bring one sharp question: whether to raise now, why your pitch isn't converting, who your first PM should be. Our guide on [how to prepare for VC office hours](https://productcircle.club/blog/how-to-prepare-for-vc-office-hours) shows how to use the time well.

### Founder openings and founding PM roles

The board carries founder openings as well as PM roles. That includes co-founder searches and founding PM roles, shared by members for members. If you're hiring your first PM, read [what is a founding product manager](https://productcircle.club/blog/what-is-a-founding-product-manager) before writing the role.

### AMAs with founders and PMs

The weekly AMA is with a PM or founder, answering member questions live. It's 45 minutes of hearing how other people handled the situation you're in.

## Product Circle for founders at different stages

### Before you start

If you're still a PM or operator and thinking about founding, the circle lets you meet founders before you jump. Our post on going [from product manager to founder](https://productcircle.club/blog/from-product-manager-to-founder) covers what changes. The [page for product managers](https://productcircle.club/for-product-managers) explains what PMs get.

### Pre-product and early product

The early job is discovery: talking to users, finding a painful problem and testing whether anyone will pay. Our [customer interviews guide](https://productcircle.club/blog/customer-interviews-guide) is a practical starting point, and teardowns help you see how other products solved similar problems.

### Finding traction

Once you have users, the question becomes what to measure and what to build next. Picking a [North Star metric](https://productcircle.club/blog/north-star-metric) and a clear [product roadmap](https://productcircle.club/blog/product-roadmap-guide) helps you and your team focus. AMAs and office hours are where you sanity-check those choices.

### Raising and hiring

Before a raise or a key hire, office hours give you an outside view from people who've done both. The board gets your founding PM or co-founder search in front of the right people.

## What makes Product Circle a good fit for founders

- **By application.** Every application is reviewed by hand, so the people in the room have chosen to be there and contribute.
- **Product-first.** It's built around product people, which suits founders who are their company's first PM.
- **Small enough that people know each other.** Advice is better from people who know your context.
- **A steady rhythm.** You don't need to block a day. A 45-minute AMA or a 20-minute slot fits around running a company.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Product Circle a founder community or a PM community?

Both. It's a by-application community for product managers and founders, and people moving between the two. Founders get product thinking from PMs, and PMs get a close view of company building.

### Can Product Circle help me raise money?

Office hours give members time with VCs and founders who have raised before, which helps you prepare. It's a place for advice, not a fundraising platform, and there's no promise of investment.

### Can I hire my first PM through Product Circle?

You can share a founding PM role on the jobs and opportunities board, where PM roles and founder openings are shared by members for members. Before you post, read [what is a founding product manager](https://productcircle.club/blog/what-is-a-founding-product-manager) and consider using an office hours slot with a founder who has hired before to shape the role.

### Do I need funding or revenue to join?

There's no published requirement. The form is written for product people: it asks for your role, company, years in product and one product decision you're proud of. As a founder, put your founder role and company, and pick a product call you made. A person on the team reads every application.

### Do I need to be based in Bengaluru to join as a founder?

No city requirement is published. Product Circle is India-focused, and specifics such as where members are based, which roles are open and where meetups happen are shared with members. The application asks for your city.

## Join a startup founder community

If you're building a company and want people around you who have raised, built and hired, start with a short application on the [how to join page](https://productcircle.club/how-to-join). Read the [about page](https://productcircle.club/about) for more on who runs Product Circle.