Andrew Bowker

☀️ Product manager by day ☀️  |  🌙 Dad by night 🌙  | 🔨  DIYer / 'maker' by late night 🔨 

I write about product management, career lessons, side projects, and soft skills. 

A core belief: humans are the backbone of business.  Because of that, I like to spend time developing and nurturing personal relationships. I've found that to be the most useful skill despite the random collection of 'hard skills' I've acquired over the years. I've spent time developing start-ups, diving into the intricacies of digital marketing, managing products, selling, creating successful customer outcomes, and sharpening statistical analysis skills to make better business decisions. 

Strengths:
1. Achiever - I come alive when I can work hard, get many things done, and achieve audacious goals.
2. Belief - I can talk to the hearts of people and see past the surface. High Emotional Intelligence.
3. Self-Assurance - I have the power to persuade and lead passionately. This shines during presentations and in situations where I need to persuade. 
4. Restorative - I love to solve problems and constantly improve things. "It can be done better".
5. Woo - I have a knack for "winning others over". Relationships are important to me.

Owner

Now accepting clients for Career Cheat Codes 2023 - https://careercheatcodes.tech

It took me 3 years and 60+ failed applications to break into Product Management. If I could go back, I'd focus on 3 things from the start:

1. Create products
2. Build relationships
3. Interviewing skills

Now I help a community of 24k+ do the same. So far, I've helped folks land at places like Amazon, Zoom, Pfizer, Pendo, IBM, Bandwidth, & more.

I specialize in helping non-technical professionals land roles in the tech industry. Non-technical roles include product management, program management, project management, customer success, strategy, business operations, marketing, sales, and more. When we work together, you'll be heavily guided on:

· How to craft a resume that gets noticed
· How to craft the perfect linkedin presence w/o the cringe
· How to build important relationships w/o the awkwardness
· How to abolish imposter syndrome and interview confidently
· How to perfect your story and pass any recruiter screen
· How to SHOW your work and beat other candidates
· How to negotiate for 45% more money

Ultimately, there is no such thing as a dream job. As we learn and grow, the "dream job: changes. I coach people to find a "dream fit" based on skills, passions, and what the market values that allows for future optionality and growth.

Varun Balsara

Nova Technologies Group

Built a venture backed, AI native platform that enables SMEs to grow through marketing. 

I mainly focused on growth and product.

Scaled it to over £2M+ revenue in under 3 years.

Co-Founder

The Human Entrepreneur

Built an Apple Top 20 Podcast in under 2 years. 

While building ConnectUs, I noticed that no one was talking about the real struggles of entrepreneurship—the pain, challenges, and hard work behind success. 

So, when I exited ConnectUs I made it my mission to share these stories.

I started a podcast that struck a chord, making it to Apple's Top 20 charts. With a team of five, we grew our audience and impact.

On the back of this, we created a community of over 300 young entrepreneurs, connecting them with opportunities, resources, and each other.

Co-Founder and Host

Warwick Enterprise (University of Warwick)

The OSCAs recognise and celebrate the outstanding contributions of Warwick's students. They not only excel academically, but also find the time to campaign for good causes, fundraise, start small businesses, and work with local charities.

I received mine for my startup ConnectUs and my Apple Top 20 Podcast: The Human Entrepreneur.

Outstanding Student Contribution Award 2021

University of Warwick

- Successfully ideated and executed an in conversation with series- a talk show that interviewed various successful academics and entrepreneurs on a range of entrepreneurial topics. 
- Organised a space for all student entrepreneurship societies to organise themselves and collaborate with each other on various on-campus and online events. 
- Mentored student entrepreneurs, promoted opportunities for entrepreneurship and creative activities on campus to foster a sense of creativity and entrepreneurship on campus.

Innovation Fellow

ConnectUs

Exited. My startup is now part of Warwick University (via Enactus Warwick). 

I was the CEO of ConnectUs. We were a university technology startup project that was tackling student loneliness on campus by matching like-minded students using our own psychology-backed algorithm. 

With a team of 7 we:
- Built an algorithm that had a 83% match efficiency
- Impact over 500 students through our services 
- Collaborated with other university stakeholders to help students. Departments included: Warwick Students Union, Warwick Sports, and Warwick Enactus. 
- Raised over £4,000 via university grants from Warwick University

Founder and CEO

Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Limited

I led the end-to-end digital strategy for one of Mahindra Holidays programmes, GoZest- a flexible vacation ownership package targeting millennials. 

Reported directly to the Chief Strategy Officer and CEO. 

The role heavily revolved around product management, business development, and cross-functional collaborations between Marketing, Finance, IT, Sales team and external vendors to develop products and boost customer acquisition.

Product Owner

Warwick Entrepreneurs

- Served as the events teams executive.
- Involved in planning and running interactive events designed to give students the skills needed to succeed in entrepreneurship.
- Tasked with networking and inviting different speakers to teach the fundamentals of entrepreneurship

Junior Director for Events 

TrepCamp

- Received a full scholarship by the University of Warwick to attend a 3-week entrepreneurial simulator. 
- Garnered a deep understanding of entrepreneurship through lectures and application of theory into practice.
- Served as the team leader for the final demo day, where I led a team of 5 student entrepreneurs.
- Networked with high net worth individuals and forged meaningful relationships with them.

Team Leader

Citi

• Selected from over 100 students to virtually consult Citibank via online collaboration with a team of 5 international students in identifying key digital trends that would enable them to successfully hire future-ready staff with the correct skillset.

• Led research on the applications of AI and Blockchain technology for hire which was presented to the management team.

Technology Consultant Intern 

University of Warwick - Warwick Business School

Served as the course representative for Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the year 2018-19. 
The role included:
- Attending focus groups and regular meetings on behalf of the Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship course for first-year students each term
- Acting as the 'student voice' on behalf of my cohort and served as the lead communicator between students and academic staff, which included providing feedback to the Warwick Business School academic staff.

Course Representative- Student Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC)

Enabling coaches and industry experts to build impactful coaching businesses | CoFounder Let’s Level up

👋 I’m V. and here’s my story: 

As a young immigrant entrepreneur, I battled dyslexia and neurodiversity, facing hurdles most wouldn’t understand. But that didn’t stop me. Instead, it fueled my journey. 

I started by launching The Human Entrepreneur podcast, which hit Apple’s Top 20. That success led me to teaching others how to grow, but the coaching world felt overwhelming - too many tools, too many agencies, too much noise. 

So, I built a solution. 

The Nova platform, a venture-backed platform that helps small business owners scale their impact and income predictably. We simplify Client Acquisition Systems so you can focus on growth, not admin headaches. 

Before this, I built a startup at uni tackling student isolation, which was acquired by Warwick University. 

Being neurodiverse has been my strength, not my weakness. It gave me the grit to push through, to find solutions where others saw problems, and to create systems that simplify, not complicate. 

Want to get in touch with me? 
DMs are open

We are an intelligent platform that enables coaches and industry experts to build their profitable learning communities at scale. 

Find out more at: www.letslevelup.io 

To get priority access, DM me.

If I were starting a startup from zero today, I wouldn’t build a product first. I would begin by testing demand.

Most founders start by building. They write code, design features, and spend months shaping a product before they know whether anyone actually cares enough to use it.

I would start by framing an offer around a painful, measurable problem that already exists for the buyer.

Examples:

1) Add 20 qualified demos a month without hiring SDRs
2) Reduce CAC by 30% in 60 days
 3) Reduce churn by 20% before it quietly slows growth

Each promise focuses on a clear outcome within a defined timeframe. When the problem is real and already costing the buyer money, the value becomes obvious immediately.

Next, I would create 3–5 variations of the offer and run small tests using ads on Meta Platforms.

The goal at this stage is not scale. The goal is learning which problem people actually react to.

Three early signals usually tell you a lot:

1) Click-through rate (shows whether the problem and promise resonate enough for people to engage)
2) Cost per click (how strongly the platform algorithm believes the audience cares about the message)
3) Comments and DMs (signals that people recognise the problem and want to learn more)

Very quickly the market starts to reveal which problem has genuine urgency behind it.

Once an angle begins to gain traction, I would send the traffic to a simple landing page that clearly states the promise and allows people to book a call.

Those calls are mainly about learning.

Pay attention to how buyers describe the problem, what they have already tried, what the issue is costing them, and what outcome would make the solution an obvious decision.

Then comes the step many founders avoid.

Ask for payment early.

This could take the form of a paid pilot, a founding member offer, a pre-sale, or even delivering the solution manually before building software.

Early payment changes the entire dynamic because validation, feedback, and revenue appear before the product even exists.

Instead of building in isolation, the product begins to take shape around customers who have already committed.

Demand comes first.

The product follows the signal from the market.

AI GTM | Leveraging AI to help businesses go to market and grow

No alternative text description for this image

I've closed £2M+ via sales calls.
Here are 3 things I wish I knew sooner 👇

1. Control the talking ratio

If I could give my younger self one piece of advice on sales calls, it would be this: stop talking so much.

Early on, I thought good sales meant explaining the product well through describing the features, benefits, and demos. So I talked… a lot. My close rate was terrible.

A mentor eventually told me something simple: “Stop pitching. Start diagnosing.”

Now I aim for roughly:

60% them talking
40% me talking
(Yes, I actually measure this with my call notetaker.)

When they talk, I'm listening for:
• the real problem (not the surface one)
• what they've already tried
• what the problem is costing them today
• why their problem still isn’t solved

If you understand those four things clearly, the sale becomes much easier.

2. Objections are signals

A lot of founders fear objections. 

Objections are the most useful part of the call, because every objection tells you what part of the sale wasn’t done properly.

If they say “It’s too expensive” → you haven’t sold the value clearly enough.
If they say “I need to think about it” → they lack clarity, not time.
If they say “Now isn’t the right time” → the problem doesn’t feel urgent enough yet.

Once you see objections this way, they stop being uncomfortable.

They become signals that reveal what the buyer still needs to believe.

3. Resist the urge to discount

This one took me the longest to learn.

When someone hesitates on price, the instinct is to lower it. 
But discounting often weakens your position, because now the buyer wonders if the original price was inflated.

Instead, hold the price and improve how you present the value. 

One rule I follow now: price confidently until you feel friction.
Friction shows you where your value communication needs work.

Fix the value.
Not the price.

Sales improved when I stopped trying to convince people
 …and started listening carefully, uncovering the real pain, and offering the right solution.

Most people treat networking like a numbers game.

More events.
More connections.
More messages.

Then they wonder why their network rarely leads to anything.

The issue is usually simpler.

They are forgettable.

They meet someone once.
Send a LinkedIn request.
Then disappear.

Months later they return with a favour to ask.

From the other side, there was never a relationship. Only a one way request.

Strong networks grow through small signals repeated over time.

Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

1) A short note when someone shares an interesting idea.
2) Acknowledging a milestone their company just announced.
3) Introducing two people who would benefit from knowing each other.

These actions take minutes.

Yet they build recognition And recognition builds trust.

Trust builds the kind of network that actually opens doors.

A lot of people chase attention online.

Views.
Likes.
Followers.

The people with strong networks focus on something else.

Reputation.

A simple way to build it:

Spend a few minutes each day engaging with someone’s work in a thoughtful way.

Leave a comment that adds something useful.
Send a quick note about an idea that stuck with you.

Over time people start recognising your name for the right reasons.

And in business, that tends to travel much further than a large contact list.

DoorDash. Zappos. Fireflies.
What do these billion dollar companies have in common?

They all started by delivering the service before building the software.

1. DoorDash. In the early days there was no logistics platform. The founders launched a simple website listing local restaurants. When an order came in, they called the restaurant, picked up the food, and delivered it themselves. It helped them prove people would actually pay for delivery.


2. Zappos. Before warehouses and inventory systems existed, the founder tested the idea by photographing shoes in local stores and listing them online. When someone placed an order, he went back to the store, bought the shoes, and shipped them himself. This proved people were willing to buy shoes online.


3. Fireflies. Early on the team spent a lot of time joining meetings and testing summaries manually to understand which notes people actually cared about and what information was useful after a call.

Starting this way does something important.

It proves people value the outcome before you spend months building software.
It also lets you get paid while testing the idea.
And going through the workflow shows you where the real friction is.

Once that becomes clear, building the software becomes much easier.

You’re no longer guessing what the product should do, just building around behaviour you’ve already observed.

Many successful software companies started by delivering the result manually and only automated it later.

Selling the service first will teach you more than months of building software.

Around 5M+ people on LinkedIn call themselves a Founder.

But calling yourself a Founder doesn’t make you one.

Anyone can add the title to their profile.

What matters is what the business actually does.

Are customers staying?
Is revenue growing?
Are you solving a real problem?

Because building a company rarely looks the way people imagine.

Most days look like this:

Reviewing processes.
Chasing deals.
Making decisions with very little information.
Trying to solve problem proactively.

Most of the work is silent.
Just showing up and figuring things out.

Ultimately, what matters is whether the business works.

That’s what actually matters.

And it comes down to a few things: 

Keep your customers happy.
Talk to customers often. 
Find ways to reach more people. 
Protect your cash.

Ultimately, the Founder title is easy to claim. 
But, very few people build something that earns it.

I've watched a lot of founders quit.

Not the business. Just the habit.

The writing. The posting. The working out. The reading.

Because somewhere along the way, they tied their consistency to how they felt.

Good day? Locked in.
Bad day? Skip.

I used to do the same thing.

Missed one day. Felt guilty. Made it mean something. Then stopped completely.

But after watching a lot of people who actually build something over time, one thing stands out:

They're not the most talented.
Not the most motivated.
Not the most fired up every morning.

They just never made how they felt a reason to stop.

What shifted for me was one simple thing:

The plan doesn't care about my mood.

Tired? Irrelevant. Still going.
Distracted? Irrelevant. Still going.
Don't feel like it at all? Irrelevant. Still going.

Not full effort every time. Not my best work.

Just enough to stay in motion.

A shorter session still counts.
A rough draft still counts.
One small action still counts.

Because momentum doesn't care how inspired you felt.

It only cares that you moved.

The best days in my journey were built on the average ones, where I almost didn't show up, but did anyway.

So if you have shown up despite not wanting to...keep going 

So if you're showing up today and didn't feel like it, that's the rep that matters most.

Most agencies think growth stalls because of leads.

Usually, it’s the founder.

In the early days, everything runs through them.

The founder sells the work.
Ensures the services are delivered.
Makes the key decisions.

Clients trust the founder.

So the agency grows.

But every new client adds:

More conversations.
More decisions.
More things that consume the founder’s time.

The business keeps moving only as fast as the founder can.

This usually means their working hours spiral.

Growth will only change when the work stops living in the founder’s head and the agency defines the exact result it delivers.

Then turns that into a clear process the team can follow:

How the work starts.
How it’s delivered.
How success is measured.

Once that exists, the founder stops being required in every decision.

Until then, the agency isn’t really scaling.

It’s just selling more of the founder’s time.

These are by far the hardest people to let go of in your team. 

The ones who are excellent at the job but toxic for team culture.

Let me explain.


They deliver strong work, clients rate them highly, and they look like exactly the kind of people a growing company should fight to keep.


That is what makes it difficult, because you can see their capability clearly and it becomes easy to excuse everything else that comes with them.


I made that mistake myself.


We had people who were exceptional in their roles but damaging to the team around them, creating tension, clashing with others, and making the wider team harder to lead.


Looking back, I kept some of those people around for too long because I focused too much on output and not enough on the effect they were having on everyone else.


That came at a cost.


When somebody is brilliant in front of clients but corrosive behind the scenes, the impact spreads into morale, trust, and how the team works together.


What I came to understand is that building a strong company is about building an environment where people work well together and move in the same direction.


Now I would take somebody with the right attitude, energy, and willingness to learn over someone more polished but damaging to the team dynamic.


Skills can be developed, but behaviour inside a team spreads much faster.


The best hiring decisions I have made were the ones who made the whole team better.


The hardest firing decisions were the ones I delayed for too long.


A healthy team will outperform a more impressive one with the wrong dynamics every time.

The 5-word test that quickly exposes a weak offer.


Many offers sound impressive when you explain them for two minutes.

But most buyers don’t give you two minutes.

They scan a sentence.
Sometimes just a few words.

And in that moment they decide whether to pay attention or move on.

A useful test is simple.

Try describing your offer in five words.

Not the product.
The outcome.

Something a buyer can immediately picture.

Examples might sound like this:

Add 20 qualified demos monthly.
Reduce churn before it spreads.
Lower CAC within sixty days.

The wording is simple, but the promise is clear.

A buyer understands what changes for them.

Where many offers struggle is different.

They describe features.
Tools.
Platforms.

But the outcome remains vague.

When the result isn’t obvious, buyers assume the benefit will take effort to understand.

And attention moves elsewhere.

Strong offers remove that friction.

They make the change visible in a few words.

The product can still be complex behind the scenes.

But the promise should be easy to grasp.

If your offer had to pass the five-word test, what would the outcome be?

Most people are using ChatGPT wrong.

They treat it like a search bar.

Type a question.
Read the answer.
Move on.

That usually produces average outputs.

The real leverage sits in how you write the prompt.
A small change can completely change the result.

Here are 3 prompts I use often:

1. Stress-test an idea

Most people ask AI to improve their ideas. It is often more useful to challenge them first.

Prompt:
“Act as a sceptical expert with deep experience in this field. Critically evaluate the idea below and identify weak assumptions, hidden risks, logical gaps, and reasons the idea might fail. Then suggest practical improvements that would strengthen it. Structure the response in three sections: key weaknesses, major risks or blind spots, and recommended improvements.”

2. Turn rough writing into clear communication

Prompt:
“You are an experienced editor. Rewrite the text below to improve clarity, readability, and flow. Remove unnecessary words, simplify complex sentences, keep the original meaning, and use clear language. Return the improved version followed by a short list of the key edits you made.”

3. Turn messy notes into structured thinking

Prompt:
“You are a strategy consultant helping organise raw notes. Review the notes below and convert them into a clear structure. Group related ideas together, identify the main themes, remove repetition, and organise the result into clear sections with bullet points. End with a short summary of the key insights.”

Bonus prompt: Getting better answers

Prompt:
“Before answering the question below, ask me the key clarifying questions you need in order to provide a precise and useful response. Once I answer them, produce the final answer.”

Most people think the magic is in the model.

Often it is simply in how you ask the question.

After reviewing 1,000+ websites, the same 3 gaps keep showing up across most sites 👇

1) A clarity gap in the first five seconds

When someone lands on your site, they try to work out very quickly what you do, who it is for, and whether it helps them. When that takes effort, attention drops and people move on.

High-performing sites make the message easy to process:
• What you do
• Who it’s for
• What they get

A simple check: can someone read your headline and repeat it back in one sentence? Clear messaging keeps people engaged and moving forward.

2) A gap between interest and action

People often show interest, yet the journey to taking action feels unclear or heavier than it needs to be. Too many options or weak direction spread attention and reduce follow-through.

Strong sites guide behaviour by focusing on one main goal per page:
• One primary call to action
• One clear next step
• Minimal distractions around it

If the goal is to book calls, everything on that page should support that action.

3) A proof gap before the decision

Buyers look for evidence before they commit, and strong claims carry more weight when they are backed by real results. Specific proof helps people understand what they can expect.

Strong sites use proof that feels real and concrete:
• The problem the client had
• The work that was done
• The result that came from it

This gives people a clear picture of the transformation and builds confidence in the decision.

When these 3 gaps are closed, your website starts to convert in a much more predictable way.

----
P.S. If this helped, share it with someone who needs it and follow Varun for more like this.

Anthropic just published a report on how their own teams use Claude Code.

There is one section I couldn't stop thinking about.

Their Growth Marketing team is one person. No coding skills. No engineers. Just them and a laptop, running paid search, paid social, App Store, email, and SEO for one of the fastest growing AI companies on the planet.

Most companies hire 4 or 5 people for that. This person does it alone and beats industry benchmarks.

Here's the system they built:

1) Google Ads that refresh themselves
They export all their live ads into a spreadsheet with the click data attached. Claude spots what's underperforming. Two agents rewrite everything, one for headlines, one for descriptions.

What used to take 2 hours takes 15 minutes. A full afternoon back every single week.

2) 100 ad creatives in half a second
They built a Figma plugin that swaps copy across every frame automatically.

100 variations in half a second. Instead of testing 5 creatives a week they're testing 50. The data you get back from that is a completely different thing.

3) They stopped logging into dashboards
They connected Claude directly to the Meta Ads API. Type a question in plain English, get the answer instantly.
No logins. No exports. No tab switching.

4) The part that compounds
Every test gets logged. Every result gets saved. When they generate new ads, all of that history feeds back in automatically.

Each week builds on the last. Most teams run experiments and forget what they learned. This system doesn't.

The numbers: 
10x more creative output. Ad time down 87%. Conversion rate 41% above industry average.

One person. A full department's output.
The job isn't to do the work. It's to build the system that does it.

Full report linked in the comments. Nine other departments worth reading too.

taplio

The Battle

Andrew Bowker

Varun Balsara

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreVarun Balsara's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Andrew Bowker

Varun Balsara

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Varun Balsara's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreVarun Balsara's LinkedIn Performance