Founding Product Manager

People tell AI extraordinarily private things about their health, finances, relationships, career plans, and problems they may not tell anyone else. But most AI products are built to collect and retain that data. We think AI should work differently. Fidaro is a private AI product built by a small team backed by the co-founders of ExpressVPN. Messages are encrypted on users' devices, and Fidaro can't read or train on them. We use encryption and confidential computing so users don't simply have to take our word for it. Today, Fidaro is a chat app. In the future, we want to build it into a platform where people feel safe sharing more of their lives with AI: running agents, connecting personal data like financial accounts, and perhaps becoming the privacy layer other applications build on. We're early, and some of our most important product decisions have yet to be made. We've built the technology and we're seeing promising early growth. What we haven't figured out yet is who needs private AI most, what will make Fidaro indispensable to them, and how to reach many more of those people. That's where you come in. We're looking for a product-minded operator who's obsessed with growth and cares about privacy. You might be a growth PM who's taken a consumer product from early traction to significant scale. You might be a founder who's done this before and wants to do it again. The most important thing is that you can go into an unclear market, find out what users actually need, and turn that into a product and growth strategy that moves the numbers. Does this sound like you? • You're happiest when you own a problem and nobody is handing you a roadmap. • You'd rather talk to 20 users this week than write a 20-page strategy doc. • You make decisions from data, and you know when the data is too skimpy to trust. • You ship fast, but not at the cost of quality, and never at the cost of user privacy. • You're curious about where AI is going and want to help shape it. • You're already in conversations about AI privacy, or you'd like to be. Reddit, X, forums, communities: you go where the users are. • You'll tell your team what they don't know, even if it isn't what they want to hear. What will you be doing? You'll set the direction for what Fidaro builds and how it grows. That might mean: • Mapping the market: which segments care most about private AI, what they need, and where Fidaro fits among competitors. • Setting up how we collect, prioritize, and act on user feedback. • Discerning between what features actually drive growth and retention vs nice-to-haves • Owning acquisition: identifying effective channels, bringing down acquisition costs, and making the product easier to share. • Defining and measuring key metrics and optimizing funnels. • Identifying where the product can deliver most user value, and pushing it in that direction • Working closely with engineering to turn insights into shipped products. This isn’t a narrow role. As a Founding PM, your scope will grow with your strengths and with what Fidaro needs. You'll be one of the small number of people determining where Fidaro goes next. Strategic thinking is important, but we also expect our early joiners to be very hands on. If you decide that something needs doing, then you may be the one who also does it. What success looks like in your first 6 months You will have: • Built a clear, evidence-based picture of our best user segments, what they need, and why they choose Fidaro. • Set up a regular way to gather user feedback and turn it into product decisions. • Sharpened Fidaro's positioning and product direction based those learnings • Tested product and growth hypotheses and found things that measurably improve activation, retention, and acquisition. • Decide the highest-priority product features to build next, and importantly what not to build. • Earned the team's trust by communicating clearly, using good judgment, and acting on it consistently. What's in it for you? • Equity. Meaningful equity, a seat at the table, and influence over where the product goes. • An important problem. You'll help make it safe for people to share information about their lives with AI, at a time when most of the industry is going the other way. • Getting in early. The product is live and early signals are good, but the big questions are still open. • Proven backing. You'll work with people who have built privacy products used by millions. • Autonomy. You'll have room to work the way you work best. • Flexibility. We mostly work async, with calls when they're needed and regular in-person time in Hong Kong. Requirements Must have: • Experience owning growth or product outcomes for a consumer or prosumer tech product, ideally from an early stage. • A track record of making decisions based on data: setting up metrics, running experiments, data analysis, and deriving actions from the results. • Ability to work independently with light oversight. You set your own priorities and follow through. • Hands-on experience with product analytics, growth tooling, or community-led growth. • Experience with global markets, especially the US. • Strong written and verbal communication. • Strong interest in AI and in privacy. Nice to have: • Previous founder or founding-team experience. • Experience at an AI company or working on a privacy-focused product. • Deeper technical skills such as website editing, workflow automation, orchestrating AI agents. • Enough technical fluency to talk about encryption and infrastructure trade-offs with engineers. Administrative • Ideally based in Hong Kong. We meet in person once or twice a week at a co-working space. • Outside Hong Kong is fine if your working hours overlap with GMT+8 for at least 6 hours a day. • We can't sponsor visas or offer relocation. • Our process includes conversations with the founding team, a hands-on working session on a real Fidaro problem, and reference checks.…