About the role
Product Growth is one of the most-read publications on product management and AI. Aakash Gupta (author and podcast host) has 240K+ newsletter and podcast subscribers, 320K+ LinkedIn followers, 330K+ X followers, 45K+ YouTube subscribers and an upcoming O'Reilly book. The paid newsletter is the core of the business, and it only works if every newsletter post is the best thing on the internet about its topic.
Aakash writes the deep dives himself, and that stays true. What he needs is more research depth and more hours in the week than one person has. We are hiring one person to add both: the researcher who goes deep before he writes, and the writer who drafts the pieces around the deep dives and the LinkedIn repurposing, so more of his time goes to the parts only he can do. You will work directly with Aakash. No agency, no layers.
This is a craft role. The bar for the writing is high, the topics are technical, and the audience is PMs and founders who notice when something is thin. If you have been waiting for a place where the writing itself is the job, this is it.
What you'll do
- Research the deep dives. Each paid deep dive runs 4,500 to 8,000 words on one topic in PM or AI: how a company built something, how a market is shifting, how a role is changing. You go first. You read the primary sources (earnings calls, docs, launch posts, interviews, papers), find the numbers, talk to operators where it helps, and come back with a sourced brief: what is actually true, what is interesting, what everyone else got wrong.
- Draft alongside him. Aakash writes the deep dives. You draft the pieces around them: sections built on your research, the data-heavy parts, the frameworks and examples, and occasionally a full first draft on a topic he assigns. Everything goes through his edit and carries his take. Over time the gap between what you hand in and what he publishes should shrink.
- Extend Aakash's LinkedIn. He writes his own posts and will keep doing so. You add capacity: 3 to 5 posts repurposed from each deep dive, plus research-backed drafts on news and launches for him to finish in his voice. Short paragraphs, one idea each, a hook in the first line, no corporate filler. You will read a lot of his back catalogue in week one.
- Own the pipeline. Keep a running list of topics with a one-line case for each. Flag when a topic is stale before we publish it. Track what performed and why.
- Fact-check everything. Every number gets a source. Every claim about a company can be traced. If it cannot, it comes out.
Rough split in a normal week: 60% deep dive research and drafting, 30% LinkedIn, 10% pipeline and analysis.
AI is welcome in the research. The prose is yours. More on both below.
What great looks like
- Most content roles reward output. This one rewards being right and being read. Here is how we will judge the work.
- Research. A great brief has the number nobody else pulled. It cites the 10-K, the engineering blog, the podcast transcript at minute 43, the person you DM'd. It separates what the company says from what the data shows. It surfaces the sleeper detail that becomes the best paragraph in the piece. A weak brief is a summary of the top five Google results.
- Newsletter Deep dive drafts. A great draft has a thesis in the first 100 words and earns it over the next 5,000. Every section has a concrete example with a name and a number. Frameworks are numbered and usable on Monday. The reader finishes knowing what to do differently. A weak draft is long because it is padded, uses "leverage" and "landscape", and hedges every claim.
- LinkedIn. A great post stops the scroll in line one and pays it off. It sounds like a person with an opinion. It gets saved and shared by PMs at Stripe and Notion, and it gets argued with in the comments. A weak post sounds like a press release, opens with a question nobody asked, or ends with "thoughts?".
- Working with Aakash. He edits hard and moves fast. Great looks like taking a paragraph of blunt feedback, fixing it in an hour, and never making that mistake again. It also looks like pushing back when you have the source and he does not.
How we work
On AI
- Use it hard for research. Summarise a 60-page filing, pull every number from a transcript, find the ten best sources on a topic, stress-test your own thesis, check your draft for gaps. That is smart, and we expect it.
- Do not use it to write. Every sentence in a draft you hand in is typed by you. Our readers pay for a human point of view, and the paid subscribers notice within two paragraphs when it is missing. So do we.
- Do not use it to fact-check for you. AI makes up numbers. Every figure gets traced to the original source by a person.
- If we find AI-written prose in a draft, that is the end of the engagement. We would rather say this once here than have it become a surprise later.
On how you operate
- High agency. You see a gap and fill it. If a topic is weak, you say so and bring a better one. If a source is missing, you find it or find the person who has it. Nobody hands you a brief for every piece.
- Ownership. A deep dive is yours from topic to final draft. If it is late, thin, or wrong, that is on you, and you say so before anyone has to ask.
- Clear, proactive communication. A short update when something is done, a short heads-up when something will slip, a specific question when you are blocked. We should never have to wonder where a piece is.
- Low follow-up. If we have to chase you twice for the same thing, the role is not working. Deadlines are commitments. Set them realistically, then hit them.
- Async by default. Aakash and his team may be in different time zones from you and from each other. Write things down. Short messages and a shared doc beat a call for most things.
- Feedback is a feature. Aakash edits directly and often. Take the note, apply it everywhere it applies, and do not need it a second time.
- Push back with sources. If you have the data and he has the hunch, say so. Being right beats being agreeable.
Who this is for
Must-haves
- Proof you can write. Published pieces, a newsletter, a portfolio, ghostwritten work you can show us. We read before we reply.
- You can go deep. You have written something over 3,000 words that required real research, and it holds up.
- You know PM and AI well enough to have opinions. You can explain what an eval is, why a PLG motion stalls, or what changed when a model launched. Working as a PM is a big plus. Following the space closely with no PM title can work if the writing proves it.
- Ownership. You bring topics, you chase sources, you ship without being chased.
- Overlap with US Pacific hours for a few hours a day so feedback loops stay short.
Good to have
- You have ghostwritten for a founder or executive and matched their voice.
- You have run your own newsletter, blog or LinkedIn and grown it.
- You read Product Growth already and can name a deep dive you disagreed with.
Please skip this if
- You want to run prompts and polish the output. The drafts must be yours.
- You need a brief for everything. Half the job is finding the brief.
- Feedback lands as an insult. Aakash's edits are direct and frequent.
- You are looking for a role that gets you a title. This one gets your research in front of 240K readers and a reference from Aakash that opens doors.
- No degree requirement. No years-of-experience requirement. The writing sample decides.
Logistics
- Format: Contract. Part-time or full-time depending on fit. We would rather have 20 great hours than 40 average ones.
- Location: Fully remote. A few hours of daily overlap with US Pacific time.
- Reports to: Aakash Gupta
- Output: Roughly 4 to 6 deep dive drafts a month plus 10 to 15 LinkedIn posts, depending on hours.
- Compensation: Competitive and tied to the quality of the trial. Tell us your rate and how you like to be paid (monthly retainer or per piece).
- Start: As soon as we find the right person.
You get direct access to how a top creator business runs, and a standing reference from Aakash for the work you did.
How to apply
No cover letter. Send three things:
- The two best pieces you have written. At least one over 2,000 words. Links or PDFs.
- A 150-word note on one Product Growth deep dive: what it got right, what you would have researched harder.
- Your rate and weekly availability, including which hours you can overlap with Pacific time.
- Send it to productgrowthppp@gmail.com with the subject line "Writer + Researcher". We reply to everyone who sends real samples.
What happens next
- We read your samples. Strong ones get a reply within a few days.
- Short test: one LinkedIn post in Aakash's voice on a topic we give you. Unpaid, under an hour.
- Paid trial: a ~3,000-word researched piece on a real topic from our pipeline, on your rate. This is the actual decision.
- A call with Aakash. Then we start.
- The whole process takes about two weeks if you move fast. We do.
