Sachin Monga

Head of Product at Substack, where he built the recommendations feature and structured the first PM organisation. Joined via the acquisition of Cocoon, a close-friends photo-sharing app he co-founded with Alex Cornell. Before Cocoon, spent seven years at Facebook on growth, video, camera, developer platform, and ads.

Appearances

• Sachin Monga on Substack Recommendations, Writers on the Internet, and Building with Principles — recommendations feature origin and mechanics, writers-in-control design principle, PM role alongside a product-minded founder, Facebook vs startup trade-offs

Key positions

• Substack’s recommendations feature made the right trade-off: writer control over discovery sacrifices some algorithmic growth for trust and authenticity
• The PM’s job at a startup is sequencing; at a large company it is managing permanent trade-offs
• Working alongside a strong product founder requires facilitating clarity between founder and teams, not owning the agenda
• The economic model for writing on the internet is improving for the first time; writers no longer need millions of viewers to earn a living