StackUp

Context

StackUp is a learn-and-earn platform that teaches developers new frontier technologies, blockchain above all. Learners complete quests that build real skills with a specific technology, and earn rewards when their work passes review. The companies behind those technologies fund the quests, because a skilled developer community is how their platforms get adopted.

That makes it a two-sided product. Learners need quests worth doing, and sponsors need proof that the quests produce developers who use their stack. Both sides had to work from day one.

Phase 1: MVP in three months

I joined as product manager and team coordinator of a three-person squad, with the brief to get a working product in front of real learners fast. We shipped the MVP in three months.

The early constraint was focus. With three people, every feature had to serve either learner activation or sponsor proof.

Phase 2: Turning usage into a business

Growth came quickly. Working with the growth function, the platform passed 100,000 users within a year. Users on their own don’t pay the bills, though, so in parallel I worked on the sponsor side:

• Built the offerings sales could sell. I found new offerings for client prospects and widened what the sales team could put in front of them.
• Closed revenue early. The first five- and six-figure client engagements came in under six months.
• Built the team behind the promise. Every sponsored campaign is a commitment to a client, so I set up a platform team of 10+ to handle all post-sales operations.

Phase 3: Head of StackUp

As Head of StackUp, I ran the business side of the platform. That meant a multi-functional team of 10+ covering partnerships, growth, marketing, client fulfilment and operations. I also enabled sales directly, by designing new offerings and pitching them to clients myself.

The bar was delivery. Every sponsored campaign was a promise to a client, so the work was building the team capability and internal systems to take on more of them without breaking operations.

Phase 4: StackUp 2.0

The original platform was built for speed, not scale. For version 2.0 I led the product and design arms of a 20-person development team, owning the full process: vision, research and development, design, launch and maintenance.

The launch was a go-to-market problem as much as a product one. I coordinated planning and execution across sales and fulfilment, so the new flagship platform and its offerings were ready to sell and deliver on launch day.

What I took from it

• In a two-sided product, the side that pays sets the definition of done. Learner growth was the headline number. But the business only worked once sponsors could see what their money produced.
• Operations is part of the product. A campaign that sells well but delivers badly loses the renewal. The post-sales team mattered as much as the platform.
• Rebuild once you know what matters. Taking v1 to 100,000 users showed what the platform had to be. v2 was built on that evidence, not on guesses.