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

Product Circle office hours give members time with VCs and founders who have raised, built and hired before them. You pick a 20-minute slot and bring one real problem. It's short on purpose: 20 focused minutes with the right person is often worth more than an hour of general advice.

How Product Circle office hours work

Office hours are one of the six things Product Circle members get. They run like this:

1. The hosts are VCs and founders who have raised money, built products and hired teams before you.
2. Slots go on the calendar, each 20 minutes long.
3. Members pick an open slot that suits them and bring one real problem.

The conversation is about your problem, not a presentation from the host. Who is hosting, when slots open and how booking works are shared with members.

What to bring to office hours

Twenty minutes goes fast. The best use of it is one specific problem where an outside view from someone experienced changes what you do next. Some examples of the kind of question that fits:

For founders

• "We have six months of runway and decent retention. Do we raise now or push for one more milestone?"
• "Our pitch gets polite meetings but no second calls. What's missing?"
• "I'm about to hire my first PM. Senior or junior, and what should they own?"
• "We have two co-founders and no clear CEO. How have you seen this resolved?"

For PMs

• "I've been offered a founding PM role at a pre-seed startup. What should I ask before saying yes?"
• "I want to start a company in two years. What should I be doing in my current job to prepare?"
• "My company is raising. What will investors look at in the product, and how do I help?"

If you're weighing the jump from PM to founder, read from product manager to founder before your slot. If the founding PM role is on the table, what is a founding product manager covers what it usually involves.

How to make use of your 20-minute slot

Before your slot, read our guide on how to prepare for VC office hours: it covers the pre-read, researching the person you're meeting and what to ask. Inside Product Circle, a few habits make the slot count:

• Open with your one-sentence question. Skip the long backstory; the host has 20 minutes, not an afternoon.
• Bring numbers, not adjectives. "Retention is good" means little. "Forty percent of March sign-ups were still active in June" gives them something to work with.
• Treat it as advice, not a pitch. Your job in the slot is to make a better decision.
• Use the rest of membership around it. Ask a related question in the weekly AMA, or follow up with people you met at the chai meetup.
• Come back at the next decision point. Office hours are most useful before a raise, before a key hire or before a big product bet.

An example office hours slot

Here's an illustrative example of how a well-used slot might run. It isn't a real session.

A seed-stage founder building a B2B tool for Indian logistics companies books 20 minutes with a founder who has raised a Series A. She opens with: "We've hit ₹8 lakh in monthly revenue with 14 customers. Is that enough to start Series A conversations, or do we need more customers first?" She shares her retention and pipeline in two lines. The founder asks how concentrated the revenue is, then explains how they told their own story when they had a similar customer count, and suggests two things to fix in the deck first. She leaves with a decision (wait one quarter), a deck change and a follow-up date.

That's what 20 minutes can do when the question is sharp.

Who office hours are for

Office hours are useful for founders at any stage who are facing a fundraising, hiring or product decision, and for PMs thinking about starting something or joining an early team. See the page for founders and the page for product managers for how the rest of membership fits.

Frequently asked questions

How long is a Product Circle office hours slot?

Each slot is 20 minutes. Members pick a slot that's open on the calendar.

Who hosts Product Circle office hours?

VCs and founders who have raised, built and hired before. Specific hosts are shared with members rather than published.

Can PMs book office hours, or only founders?

Office hours are part of membership, so they're for members, PMs and founders alike. PMs often use them for questions about founding PM roles or starting a company.

How do I book an office hours slot?

Slots are on the calendar for members, and you pick one that's open. The booking details are shared with members after they join, so you'll find them once you're in.

What kind of question works best in office hours?

One specific problem where an outside view changes what you do next: whether to raise now, why a pitch isn't converting, who to hire first, or whether to take a founding PM role. Broad questions like "any advice for my startup?" rarely fit in 20 minutes.

Get 20 minutes with someone who's been there

If you're facing a decision that someone further along could help you make, office hours are one of the six things members get. Start with a short application on the how to join page, and see the full list on the membership page.