Breaking in-house (Post 1)

I get this question a lot: how did you become a product counsel? I figured I'd start a blog, and write bite-sized, "Show Your Work! Austin Kleon"-style, musings about successes and failures. This is the blog I wished I had when I was making the jump in-house. Hoping it helps a reader out there.

Tip 1: Get passionate about the world of tech. Even better, get weirdly obsessive about a particular sub-industry within tech (e.g., health, comms, entertainment).

Like all passions, it's unlikely this genuine interest emerges spontaneously. It requires effort and energy, so the best way to maintain consistent interest is to be genuinely curious. And this interest can really come from anywhere:

• A friend who describes herself as nosy said she dove into tech privacy regulations one day because she wanted to understand how our laws protect people from prying eyes like hers. Today's she's a successful attorney at a major SF law firm advising FAANG lawyers on all sorts of privacy questions.

• Another friend read Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez and is a bit chaotic himself. He wanted fast pace and drama. So he studied startups, and why they're often so messy. Today, he's an attorney at a venture capital fund.

• I was interested in understanding power: how power is acquired, how power is tracked. Money often reveals the situs of power, and fintech reveals the machinations behind the movement of money. Thus — my obsession with fintech and business ops today.

So go out! Google. Watch vids. Read books. Find something that resonates.