#101 - Brian Donohue

About this episode

<p><a href="https://twitter.com/bthdonohue">Brian Donohue</a> is President of <a href="https://www.instapaper.com/">Instapaper</a> and a Product Engineering Manager at <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/">Pinterest</a>.<br><br>You can find him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/bthdonohue">@bthdonohue</a>.<br><br>The YC podcast is hosted by <a href="https://twitter.com/Shashanksantosh">Craig Cannon</a>.<br><br>***<br><br><b>Topics<br><br></b>00:19 - The history of Instapaper<br><br>8:19 - Free competitors enter the market<br><br>10:19 - How Brian joined Instapaper<br><br>14:34 - Transitioning from paid to freemium<br><br>19:19 - Pinterest's acquisition of Instapaper<br><br>26:34 - Moving to California<br><br>29:04 - Working on Instapaper within Pinterest<br><br>32:19 - Spinning Instapaper out of Pinterest<br><br>42:34 - Jareau Wadé asks - What types of product integrations could Pinterest have done with Instapaper?<br><br>50:04 - Ryan Hoover asks - I’m curious how he and the team balance simplicity with new feature development/product expansion.<br><br>54:19 - Raymond Durk asks - I love the rapid reading mode but would also love a voice enabled mode where the Google Assistant or Siri reads it. Speaking of I'd use it on my Google Home to listen to news if that was a skill.<br><br>57:39 - Brian Kim asks - Any growth hacks that worked well?<br><br>1:00:04 - Gustaf Alströmer asks - How does it make time for focused time to catch up on everything he saves? What are his best productivity hacks related to this?<br><br>1:03:44 - Backpacking <b><br></b></p>