Martin Shkreli argues that FinTech engineers become dramatically more effective when they actively invest. By "dogfooding" the user experience, they gain an intuitive understanding of customer needs, turning a 10x engineer into a 100x one. This contrasts with Bloomberg, which bans employees from trading.
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To differentiate hype from reality, seed investors should practice "vibe coding": daily, hands-on experimentation with new developer tools. This provides an intuitive understanding of current technological capabilities, leading to better investment decisions and inoculating them against unrealistic expectations.
Morgan Stanley's Michael Grimes, banker for Google and Tesla, gains an edge by deeply immersing himself in a company's product. He famously played hours of FarmVille for the Facebook IPO and drove for Uber, demonstrating a unique "method acting" approach to investment banking that builds conviction.
To maintain a competitive edge, Mastercard's CEO personally uses rival products like Visa or AmEx. He frames this as "testing out" the competition to understand their user experience firsthand and provide direct feedback to his own product teams.
Sundial founder Julie Zhu intentionally avoids hiring product managers. This constraint forces engineers to take full ownership of the product definition and user value, preventing them from delegating critical product thinking and developing a stronger sense of customer empathy.
As a federally regulated exchange, Kalshi employees are prohibited from trading on their own platform. This prevents direct product testing, or "dogfooding," forcing the team to rely almost entirely on customer feedback to iterate, a significant challenge for building an intuitive financial product.
Engineering managers who no longer code can use dogfooding as their "maker time." It's a way to contribute directly to product quality, maintain empathy for users and engineers, and build rapport with their team by demonstrating they care about the end product.
Top tech banker Michael Grimes immerses himself in a company's product before taking it public. He played hours of Farmville for the Facebook IPO and drove for Uber before its listing, gaining a first-principles understanding of the business that pure financial analysis misses.
To build deep customer empathy, embed every new employee—regardless of role or seniority—with a real customer for several days. Their sole task is to solve one real problem, creating an immediate, visceral connection to the company's purpose.
To truly learn about markets or entrepreneurship, you must participate directly, even on a small scale. This visceral experience of investing $50 or starting a micro-business provides far deeper insights than purely theoretical or cerebral learning. Combine this hands-on experience with mentorship from pros.
Contrary to a shareholder-first dogma, these leaders operate on an employee-first principle. They believe that well-treated, empowered employees provide superior customer service. This creates loyal customers, which drives sustainable profits and ultimately delivers superior long-term returns for shareholders.
