The Product isn't the Product

Most product thinking assumes you’re building a product. In a startup, you’re not—you’re building a business.

In the early days of a startup, there is no product team. The founder is the product team—while also juggling sales, hiring, fundraising, support, and everything in between. Product decisions don’t happen in isolation; they’re shaped by survival, speed, and the need to get something working in the real world.

In this talk, Kim Thibault shares her experience from BoardPro, reflecting on the transition from founder-led product to hiring the first product people. She’ll unpack what triggered that shift, what worked (and what didn’t), and the tension that comes with sharing product ownership between a founder and a product team.

Along the way, she’ll challenge a common assumption: in a startup, success doesn’t come from the product alone—it comes from how the whole business works around it.

This session will explore:

• What it really means to be a founder driving product
• Why great products don’t matter without a working go-to-market motion
• How product thinking changes across startup stages (-1→0, 0→1, 1+)
• The realities of hiring and working with your first product people
• The mindsets product managers need if they want to become founders—or work effectively with oneIf you’ve ever worked in (or are curious about) a founder-led environment, this will give you a clearer view of the trade-offs, tensions, and decisions behind the scenes.

About our speaker
Kim Thibault is a co-founder of BoardPro, a governance software platform used by boards and leadership teams across New Zealand, Australia, and beyond. She spent nearly a decade leading product as the company scaled, navigating the transition from founder-led product to building a product team.
Kim now works as a startup coach and startup director, supporting early-stage founders—particularly in B2B SaaS and product-led growth companies—to build effective products and businesses. She brings a practical, experience-driven perspective shaped by the realities of building and scaling a startup.

Huge thanks to Auror for hosting and sponsoring this event!

You can join the livestream here: https://meet.google.com/pmi-iynm-ome. As always the livestream will kick off from just before 6pm.

Note that the rules of our host venue means that we will send the exact location of the event to attendees on the day of the event - the venue is in the Britomart area. Those of you who have attended events at Auror before will know where it is!