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Sid Sahgal
Product Leader | Fintech | AI
Sid Sahgal is a product management leader with over 10 years of global experience in developing and managing products.2 He is currently working as a Product Advisor at a Stealth Startup.2
Professional Background
Prior to his current role, Sid held the position of VP Product at Atom Finance.1 He left Atom Finance approximately three months after it was acquired by Toggle AI.1 This experience suggests that Sid has expertise in leading product teams in startup environments, particularly in the financial technology sector.
Product Management Philosophy
Sid emphasizes the importance of direct communication between Product Managers (PMs) and customers, even in Business-to-Business (B2B) settings.1 He believes this approach is crucial for effective product development and management.
Observations on Industry Practices
Sahgal has shared insights on product management practices, particularly praising Amazon Web Services (AWS) for their customer-centric approach.1 He notes that AWS stands out by having their Product Managers directly reach out to customers, even for small accounts, to gather feedback and insights.1 This practice, according to Sid, is not common among other vendors and is something he advocates for in product management.
Education
Sid Sahgal's educational background includes studies at Carnegie Mellon University2, though the specific degree or program is not mentioned in the available information.
Sid's LinkedIn profile (username: sidsahgal) likely contains more detailed information about his professional journey, skills, and experiences in product management across various companies and industries.
Highlights
LIFE UPDATE: I left Atom Finance after it was acquired by Toggle AI about 3 months ago.
I have now helmed the product teams for two startups that have been acquired, probably the most exhilarating periods of my 10 years in product management. Both experiences have given me a deep appreciation of what is needed to build products so that a company can go from idea to exit.
Since Atom, I have been helping a friend get her AI startup off the ground. Learning new AI techniques by building a product from scratch myself has been a great way to expand my machine learning experience. It has been immensely satisfying to get hands-on with code and data again!
I am now ready for something more permanent (yes, my severance just ran out :)) and would love to talk if you are building something ambitious or know of any opportunities that would be a good fit.
I am looking for product roles that could be senior IC (see note about being hands-on) or leading a small team. Wealth management and other elements of financial services would be a natural fit given my extensive experience in the industry, but I am open to new industries. An AI angle would fit well with my quant background, but is not essential.
Grateful for all of the opportunities I have received in the past and can’t wait to roll up my sleeves at another promising company!
Does sports betting reduce investing in the stock market?
A new study shows that for every $1 increase in betting in U.S. states that have legalized gambling, there is roughly a reduction of $2 in net deposits in brokerage accounts!! Unfortunately, this effect is especially pronounced in financially constrained households.
To infer causality, the authors use the fact that the legalisation of state gambling happened over time and use a difference-in-differences econometric approach. I bring this up early because I know the first response to any such study is “Correlation is not causation”. While I’m sure their approach is not perfect, it is a good attempt to address the issue.
Key results:
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As states legalised gambling, investors shifted their investing from bets that have positive expected value (e.g., stocks) to negative expected value bets (e.g. sports betting, lotteries).
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Surprisingly, consumption in entertainment related categories such as cable, restaurants and other entertainment also increased with betting.
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Household financial health deteriorated as financially constrained households increase their credit card debts and increase overdrafts.
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The effect is more pronounced in financially constrained households as they deposit a larger fraction of their income in sports betting sites.
The paper is attached in the comments.
