How to fail fast to unlock hypergrowth | Dane Molter, VP of Product (Navan)

02/25/25 • 36 min

When it comes to challenging the status quo in SaaS and product strategy, you can’t fundamentally disrupt an industry without failing fast and pushing boundaries.

On today’s episode of LaunchPod, we’re talking with Dane Molter, VP of Product and Strategy at Navan, an all-in-one travel and expense app for corporate travelers.

In this episode, Dane talks about:

His framework for driving product teams to “be brave,” ship faster, and attain huge goals
Why perfect is actually the enemy of progress, and when good enough is actually good enough
How to exceed the perceived boundaries of any solution, and deliver product that really disrupts the world

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dane-molter-6b937231/
Navan: https://navan.com/

Resources

(Ethically) cheat your way to $250M+ | Mikal Lewis, Product Exec. (Whole Foods, Nordstrom): https://youtu.be/5txeT2U_YQo

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:06 Dane Molter’s Journey From Amex to Grubhub
01:44 The Grubhub Experience: Embracing Imperfection
04:08 The Push for Hypergrowth in Product
05:19 Lessons in Product Risk and Innovation
06:59 The Bigger Picture: Product Beyond Technology
09:30 Focusing on Bravery in Product Innovation
12:12 Applying Product Lessons at Navan
17:50 Enterprise Travel Challenges and AI Solutions
19:53 Business Outcomes and Accountability
20:13 Learning Business Mechanics at Amex
26:15 The Importance of Small Tests in Product Testing
34:27 Navigating AI and Emerging Technologies
37:45 Outro

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We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today.

Special Guest: Dane Molter.

When it comes to challenging the status quo in SaaS and product strategy, you can’t fundamentally disrupt an industry without failing fast and pushing boundaries.

On today’s episode of LaunchPod, we’re talking with Dane Molter, VP of Product and Strategy at Navan, an all-in-one travel and expense app for corporate travelers.

In this episode, Dane talks about:

His framework for driving product teams to “be brave,” ship faster, and attain huge goals
Why perfect is actually the enemy of progress, and when good enough is actually good enough
How to exceed the perceived boundaries of any solution, and deliver product that really disrupts the world

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dane-molter-6b937231/
Navan: https://navan.com/

Resources

(Ethically) cheat your way to $250M+ | Mikal Lewis, Product Exec. (Whole Foods, Nordstrom): https://youtu.be/5txeT2U_YQo

Chapters

Follow LaunchPod on YouTube

We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today.

Special Guest: Dane Molter.

Previous Episode

How to A/B test your product to millions in ARR | Eric Metelka, Head of Product (Eppo)

Today, we’re talking with Eric Metelka, Head of Product at Eppo, a next-gen A/B experimentation platform for product teams. With a background in A/B testing and data science, Eric has worked in building product at companies like Cameo, SpotHero, and G2.

In this episode, Eric talks about:

The process he used to cold start G2’s review product and turn it into a self-sustaining flywheel
His secrets to running great A/B tests that can really prove your impact on product growth
How he recovered from Cameo’s Engineering Director telling his entire exec team that all Eric’s test data was incorrect and what he learned from that

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericmetelka/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/eric3000
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/eric3000.bsky.social
Eppo: https://www.geteppo.com/
Build Product like Linear | Nan Yu, Head of Product (Linear, Everlane, BOA): https://youtu.be/7ISWLoQtNOc

Chapters

00:00 Intro
03:01 Strategies for Gathering Reviews
05:19 Automating the Review Process
07:54 Scaling and Growth at G2
16:38 Transition to Power Reviews
20:48 Challenges in Competing with Shopify
22:51 Product Lessons from Implementation Processes
24:03 Importance of Institutional Knowledge
25:05 Navigating Leadership and Learning
26:04 Understanding Revenue Recognition
27:56 Effective A/B Testing Strategies with Data Science
28:39 Product Experimentation Pitfalls at Cameo
38:33 Improving Digital User Experience at Cameo
41:52 Outro

Follow LaunchPod on YouTube

We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today.

Special Guest: Eric Metelka.

Next Episode

How to build for customers— not stakeholders | Jonathan Sussman, CPO (Jebbit) | LaunchPod

Today, we’re talking with Jonathan Sussman, CPO for over 5 years at Jebbit, an enterprise experience platform for first-party data capture, which was recently acquired by BlueConic.

In this episode, Jonathan talks about:

Why Product Management is one of the hardest functions to master
How to use professional services - usually a cost center - as a source of product innovation that drives longterm growth
And, the time when they built to solve internal problems, not customer value, nearly caused an early key launch to fail

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-sussman-0a84462/
Jebbit: https://www.jebbit.com/
BlueConic https://www.blueconic.com/

Resources

Building iconic customer experiences with Susan Stavitski, Principal PM: https://youtu.be/TyA7d30ckNE?feature=shared
The end of MVPs and prioritizing accountability with Jason Penkethman, CPO: https://youtu.be/-vanNudmXMM?feature=shared

Chapters

00:00 Startups and ROI Challenges
00:24 Introduction
01:00 Building Product From Yahoo to Jebit
02:08 The Evolution of Programmatic Advertising
10:02 Transition to AT&T and Product Management Insights
13:55 Joining Jebit: Early Challenges and Learnings
21:46 Innovative Product Approaches and Managed Services
28:31 Balancing Tech Debt and Customer Needs
31:39 Outro

Follow LaunchPod on YouTube

We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today.

Special Guest: Jonathan Sussman.