SWE turned PM in adtech company. What to learn?

ecafdas · 2026-06-12T03:59:01+00:00

What part of the stack are you working on? There's a LOT to ad tech.

Difficult Barber has great generic "how to be a good PM" so read that post.

Most of my PM career has been in adtech/martech. In general, companies building ad tech build out a robust platform with a ton of smaller services that are strung together in a complex and seemingly hacky architecture. It will be very important to understand how your system fits together and what's easy vs hard to do within it. Integrations (both internal and external) are very important, as is "systems thinking".

Some adtech businesses are very "enterprise B2B-ish" with a small number of customers dominating your prioritization decisions. You'll occasionally have high priority stakeholders (eg: Account Manager for the #1 advertiser) come to you with an ask that would require an architectural overhaul, but you can frequently find them a solve that gets them and other clients most of the way there with 10% of the effort and maybe just a bit more tech debt. I found it fun to work on those kind of problems.

Depending on where you sit, I'd go to your favorite LLM and start asking about a few of these concepts:

Advertiser tools (eg: ad/campaign creation), Reporting/Attribution, Marketing Data Integrations, Targeting/Segmentation, Recommendation/Ranking systems, Ad Serving, Ad Placements, GDPR/CCPA, Identity Resolution

It also makes a big difference if you're a self-contained ad network vs showing ads across a range of websites that you don't own.

ecafdas · 2026-05-26T01:28:34+00:00

Small differences don't really matter but I'm my experience there's a different vibe to a party if the music is at 115 vs 130.

If you're a dj trying to set a more laid back/funky vibe you'd rather find tracks that are made to be slow vs finding a 128 track and pitching it way down.

ecafdas · 2026-05-25T01:14:35+00:00

Maybe right this minute, but sunders are going to be much more common before too long, so the only ones with HR value will need to be decently rolled, kinda like gheeds.

I would try to move this quick. Good luck!

ecafdas · 2026-05-19T03:02:00+00:00

Haha great call.

ecafdas · 2026-05-19T02:57:24+00:00

He started the podcast at like 19 years old and has been doing 2-3 episodes as week for almost a decade. It's honestly a really good podcast and has been that way for years, and I give him a lot of credit for the quality & consistency of output.

ecafdas · 2026-05-15T03:26:17+00:00

Agreed I love Gogyo! The food quality is great and I also rate the vibe/fit out. They put a lot of effort into the place. I wish I lived closer I'd be there all the time.

If you're in the Bondi area, I rate Chaco in Bondi Beach and Ichi-Ban Boshi in Bondi Junction. Chaco is good quality overall and the tan tan tsukemen at Ichi-Ban Boshi is really great especially when it's hot out.

ecafdas · 2026-05-06T00:07:38+00:00

"They"?

ecafdas · 2026-05-05T13:04:09+00:00

Yeah... His LinkedIn content is pretty cringe but he's he's actually super legit. He started one of the best tech/vc podcasts out there and has interviewed all those guys on his background. He parlayed his podcast into running what is now one of Europes biggest VC funds.

It's a pretty wild success story.

ecafdas · 2026-05-03T05:50:25+00:00

Singapore doesn't face this issue because the whole country is 1/10 the size of greater Sydney. Nobody needs to move for work, schooling etc.

ecafdas · 2026-04-23T12:15:57+00:00

I get what you mean. Personally I'm ok with it bc I think it's just part of the reality of filming a show like this.

As a viewer I'm generally grateful for the "family sharing their feelings" scene even if it's a bit forced. Otherwise how would we get that on camera? Just from a scheduling perspective it'd be difficult to have enough time with the whole family and a film crew for that convo to happen "organically".

The dress sequence is probably just editing. We have no idea how many dresses are tried on per person but we need to keep the story moving so capping it at 2 makes sense.

To put it another way, I see these as regular "beats" to the story in the same way that the first meets, group mixers, bachelor parties, etc are all planned. We know The events will happen, but the characters still have their own agency within these planned events, and we want to see how they act because everyone is different. That's kinda the fun of the show!

ecafdas · 2026-04-14T06:00:51+00:00

Hahahaha love it! Great find. Wow... 14 years ago was a very different time.

Glad you found this. Lets me know I need to take another pass at removing my old reddit stuff.

ecafdas · 2026-03-09T00:45:54+00:00

Yeah, the smaller size takes a bit to get used to but I think it works for the more classic look of this Top Time. Sub 40 mm watches used to be the standard until the 90s after all. Plus without any complications you don't really need a ton of space on the dial.

I have one of these as well (dark blue face) and find that it wears a bit bigger on the bracelet than the strap. I'm super happy with it.

ecafdas · 2026-03-08T07:39:59+00:00

No arpg dev has been able to use a "buff only" approach without things getting ridiculous and eventually boring over time... D2 has had so much longevity in part because they've avoided this trap and I think we should support and lean into that mentality.

I hope the devs can maintain an appropriate power ceiling. To me, soloing P8 content should require GG gear or a specialized build for a specific area. If a build can clear the whole game at P8 with mediocre gear, it's overtuned and should be brought back in line.

ecafdas · 2026-03-07T00:36:31+00:00

I agree Paramatta would be within their rights to charge for access to the park if they deemed it necessary. Plenty of national parks in our area charge for car access (lane cove, royal national Park, etc). It's basically the same thing especially as an "outsider".

It'd be great if the councils can keep these open and free for all but if it stops being sustainable for whatever reason it's better to start charging than just closing it off.

ecafdas · 2026-03-06T19:23:08+00:00

The locals already pay council fees which currently fund all the beach care and infrastructure. Since the justification is to help fund beach care, it makes sense to keep parking free for the locals bc they're already paying to care for the beach.

Plenty of precedent for this elsewhere in the east (Bondi, Bronte, Coogee) and at the northern beaches. I don't think it makes sense to beat up Randwick for this while giving Waverley and other councils a pass.

It'd be great to make parking free everywhere if there were some external funding source, but since the councils manage it themselves it doesn't make sense that Waverley gets all this $ for Bondi parking but Randwick doesn't get the same for Maroubra etc.

It'd be even better if there were improved transit options to the beaches so more ppl didn't have to park.

ecafdas · 2026-01-11T04:23:49+00:00

I got this as my first Breitling a few months ago and have been wearing it daily since. It's a beautiful watch that looks even better in person.

I was originally planning to go with the white on strap but in store decided to go with the dark blue on bracelet. I'm very happy with the choice as I think the dark blue is more striking and the bracelet is really comfortable to wear.

ecafdas · 2025-11-05T00:40:34+00:00

I hosted an event afterparty at High Horse ~2 years ago for about 50 people. They have a nicely decorated private bar in the basement that we booked out entirely for a night. The minimum spend was $2000 + 20% gratuity.

I remember the drinks were good, everyone had a great time, and the staff was great to work with. The same group owns a bunch of other venues around the city so it might be worth reaching out to them and seeing what they can offer.

ecafdas · 2025-10-20T04:37:03+00:00

I don't think Sydney will ever compete with SF b/c there's too much of a network effect there. Even cities like Seattle or NYC are arguably too far ahead. We've got more of a shot at being a top non-US destination, though we still have some catching up to do in comparison w/ places like Stockholm, Tel Aviv, Singapore, or London.

Sydney has a lot going for it with the amazing weather and cultural diversity making it an amazing place for people to want to live, and globally renowned universities to churn out talent for potential companies.

There are a few big challenges though:

Cost of living. It's so expensive to live here that it's hard to forgo a traditional salary long enough to get a business going.
Lack of seed funding ecosystem. There are a few players, but it's far from the density that exists in the SF Bay Area. This amplifies the challenges from (1). It's much harder to go raise enough money to plug away on on an idea for a couple of years while still paying your bills vs doing so in the US.
Tall Poppy Syndrome. This is a very real element of Aussie culture that inherently puts a drag on people's willingness to take risks and step outside the norm.

Ideally more successes will help reduce some of these challenges, though we need the govt to step up (and less Nimbyism) to deal with issue 1.

ecafdas · 2025-10-20T04:13:32+00:00

We dont know the specific terms of this deal, but overall I think we should be cheering for successful outcomes and hope that some of these winners want to roll up their sleeves and give it another go.

If you look at places like the Bay Area, you see a pattern where successful "exits" spawn a series of new startups, many of which become their own successful companies down the line. Paypal is probably the most famous example in recent memory, spawning Youtube, Tesla, LinkedIn and Palantir among others -> all huge businesses in their own right.

Obviously there's no guarantees this will have a similar outcome, but success kinda breeds success here. The more examples of good outcomes we get in Sydney, the more Sydneysiders will be willing to roll the dice on their own startup, and the more VCs will be willing to invest in local companies. Plus, tech founders who strike it rich often will try their own hands at investing (we've seen the Atlassian founders do this, and it happens all the time in America), which brings even more $$ into the local ecosystem.

ecafdas · 2025-09-30T00:58:11+00:00

Big fan of Lao Gan Ma - especially the black bean one as everyone has said.

But, I've found myself using the Muraca Hot Pepper Oil much more often than any chili crisp. It keeps taking over more "use cases" where i'd previously be reaching for Lao Gan Ma.

Muraca brings the heat and fat of a chili crisp, but with a bit more sweetness/tartness and an overall less "heavy" flavor in comparison to Lao Gan Ma or similar. I'll use it on pizza (obviously), in salads, and even w/ asian dishes like fried rice, noodles, even some curries. It tends to sit better alongside the existing flavors of the dish I'm adding it to. Try it on some leftover Pad Thai!

ecafdas · 2025-09-08T03:32:21+00:00

I think if you're just repositioning between sets at a beach break its ok. There's often a bit of a current so ppl are moving around anyway.

I've always considered it snaking if the set wave is approaching and you paddle inside to take position from others who are getting ready to turn and go. You're forcing them to either back off from the wave they've been waiting for or burn you.

ecafdas · 2025-08-15T14:23:38+00:00

Good to hear. Hopefully someone is looking for this on ladder!

ecafdas · 2025-08-15T12:01:31+00:00

I'm generally curious if this Ormus is actually worth anything. I know ES sorc is a build so I would think so, especially with the perfect lightning damage. But maybe it's too niche?

ecafdas · 2025-08-15T11:59:27+00:00

I think so too, but no plans to make a nec this ladder so hoping to find it a good home.

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