Role Overview The Product & Platform Lead (PPL) exists to ensure Timber's marketplace mechanics - Option, Package, Launch/License/Resell - work for the people using them. This role sits at the intersection of business model and product, translating how Timber creates value into clear, trusted features. Role Classification Founding Team Member - “Someone joining extremely early and owning a critical function, but not necessarily receiving co-founder-level ownership.” Reporting Relationship Reports to the Founder & CEO (Allan Meade), in close partnership with the Founding Full Stack Engineer, and Chief Operations Officer (COO). Start Date: To be confirmed in writing between the parties via Offer Letter.
Responsibilities
The Product & Platform Lead owns the 0 to 1 development of the Timber platform, turning Timber's business model and marketplace vision into a focused, usable product that real users can adopt and rely on. The PPL leads the evolution of the platform, ensuring the experiences of creators, buyers, soft-circle investors, talent, and other participants work together to create a functioning platform.
Specific responsibilities include:
- Own the end-to-end product vision and strategy for Timber's platform from concept through MVP and early validation
- Translate Timber's Option → Package → Build model into intuitive platform experiences and workflows
- Lead discovery with founders, operators, packagers, capital partners, buyers, and other participants to identify and validate real problems
- Prioritize problems worth solving and distinguish meaningful user needs from surface requests
- Develop and maintain the 0 to 1 product roadmap, balancing user needs, business objectives, technical feasibility, and resources
- Rapidly prototype and test concepts through lightweight methods before significant engineering work
- Define and lead the MVP, focusing the team on delivering meaningful early value
- Partner with engineering to translate validated concepts into clear requirements and priorities
- Prioritize the product backlog and make clear tradeoffs about what to build now, later, or not at all
- Own the evolution of key Timber experiences (Marketplace, Packaging Workspace, Founder HQ, Talent Hub, Deal Log, Deal & Legal Glossary, and other platform functionality) as validated by discovery
- Establish product requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and success measures
- Lead usability testing and early validation, using feedback to drive continuous improvement
- Define and monitor product metrics related to activation, engagement, listings, marketplace activity, deal progression, conversion, and retention
- Use early product data and qualitative feedback to assess MVP fit and guide iteration
- Maintain a shared roadmap, backlog, and decision log for founder visibility
- Conduct regular platform reviews to evaluate what works and what should change
- Partner with the CEO to ensure product strategy aligns with Timber's broader business model
- Balance product ambition with technical feasibility, architecture, and scalability with the Founding Full Stack Engineer
- Collaborate with the Head of Design to deliver clear, cohesive platform experiences
- Work with the CMGO to communicate major changes to users
- Foster a culture of rapid experimentation, learning, iteration, and customer-driven decision making
Qualifications
- Demonstrated experience taking a product from 0 to 1, including turning an ambiguous idea into a working MVP used by real customers
- Experience defining and prioritizing a product roadmap for a marketplace, platform, SaaS, or other multi-sided product
- Strong understanding of the 0 to 1 product development process (discovery, validation, prototyping, MVP, launch, iteration)
- Comfortable conducting hands-on user research and usability testing (interviews, workflow observation, prototype testing, qualitative feedback)
- Ability to distinguish between user statements and underlying problems to be solved
- Strong ability to translate complex business models into simple product experiences and workflows
- Comfortable creating or working with wireframes, prototypes, user flows, and product requirements
- Strong product judgment with pragmatic prioritization when resources are limited
- Comfortable working in ambiguity and making decisions with imperfect information
- Strong collaborator who can work closely with engineering, design, business, and leadership
- Clear communication of product decisions and alignment across a small founding team
- Data-informed with comfort defining metrics and using quantitative and qualitative feedback to guide decisions
- Marketplace, startup, entrepreneurial, or early-stage product/platform experience is strongly preferred
- Experience with products involving marketplaces, transactions, deal structures, licensing, investments, or multi-party workflows is a plus
- Experience on a small founding team where the PPL is hands-on rather than solely managing a platform organization is a plus
What “Wins” Look Like for this role
Concrete markers that this role is succeeding at Timber's current stage:
- A product roadmap the founding team agrees reflects Timber's real priorities
- Clear, tested user flows for browsing listings, NDAs, options, packaging deals, and licenses/resells
- Early user research validating (or correcting) assumptions about founders, operators, and buyers
- Platform metrics (listings created, NDAs signed, options locked, deals packaged) tracked and reviewed regularly
- A Deal & Legal Glossary and platform experience that makes Timber’s model understandable to first-time users
What Timber Needs From This Role This is not primarily a product management role for an established platform. Timber needs a visionary-driven and ambitious Product & Platform Lead who can help take the company from 0 to 1. The ideal person is willing to talk to users on Monday, sketch a new workflow on Tuesday, test a prototype on Wednesday, rethink the idea on Thursday, and sit with engineers on Friday to determine what can actually ship. They should be a builder, visionary, researcher, strategist, risk-taker, executor, and product operator who can turn ambiguity into clarity and clarity into a real, innovative product platform. Expected Time Commitment Hours as needed, reflecting Timber's current early development stage. There is no fixed weekly hour requirement; the PPL is expected to commit whatever time is reasonably needed to meet the responsibilities above. This commitment is expected to increase - potentially to full-time - as Timber reaches key funding or traction milestones. Remote / Work Arrangement Remote-first, with core collaboration hours coordinated with the CEO and founding team. Communication Expectations Weekly 1:1 with the CEO, participation in the founding-team leadership sync, and prompt (same-business-day) responsiveness on the Company's primary communication channel during agreed working hours. Outside Activities Hours-as-needed engagement; the PPL may hold other employment, consulting engagements, or business activities, provided they do not directly compete with Timber, do not create a conflict of interest, and do not interfere with the availability and responsiveness this role requires. Any potential conflict should be disclosed to, and approved in advance by, the CEO. Startup Compensation Structure
- Equity-only compensation during this fundraising round, with detailed equity terms to be set in the Offer Letter (including type of equity, vesting schedule, cliff, and any refresh considerations)
- No cash salary as part of this round; compensation is aligned with equity ownership and future liquidity milestones
- Any future compensation adjustments (e.g., salary, benefits) will be determined in subsequent fundraising rounds or upon milestone-based triggers, and will be documented in an updated Offer Letter or employment agreement
At-Will Relationship This role is engaged on an at-will basis. Either the PPL or the Company may terminate the relationship at any time, with or without cause and with or without notice. Nothing in this document guarantees continued engagement for any specific period, notwithstanding the vesting schedule described above. Confidentiality & IP Assignment As a condition of this role, the PPL is required to execute Timber's Confidential Information and Invention Assignment Agreement (“CIIAA”) prior to or concurrent with starting work. Under the CIIAA, all inventions, work product, and intellectual property created in connection with Timber are assigned to the Company, and the Company's confidential information (including marketplace, listing, and deal data) is protected during and after the engagement.