About

Ari Akerstein

I’m an Entrepreneur, Product Manager, Father, Molecular Biologist. I use this space to keep track of my various thoughts about the world. As a Product manager and leader I think a lot about Product craft, essays and general observations.

Some things about me:

• Grew up in Providence, RI
• Invented CoreWheels after college, inspired by gymnastic strength and wanting to give people at home a better way to improve their strength/weight ratio.
• While growing that company did a MS in Molecular Biology at SFSU. Then shifted to UCSF. Working in the lab is great for 25 hours a week.
• Led various Product or Growth areas at companies like @Walmartlabs, Facebook/Meta, Tophatter, BabyCenter/Johnson&Johnson, IncredibleLabs.
• Live(d) in California (SF, EastBay) for many years. Moved to MA during the pandemic and haven’t looked back.
• Battled Cancer in 2018 as a new dad - wrote a lot about that here RoguePatient.
• Decided to pivot my career into healthtech. Joined GrandRounds/Included Health (merged with Doctor On Demand) to build their virtual specialty care product.
• I now lead a healthtech accelerator focused on improving the patient experience relative to hard medical situations e.g., advanced cancer.

Some things I believe

• Pull over push
  • Enthusiasm matters a lot. It’s much easier to do things that you would do even if you didn’t need the money. The reason this matters is that energy is the critical ingredient (all the brains in the world don’t matter without it) - both for your own productivity, but also to motivate teams.
• Retirement and financial freedom are different
  • The dream is to have one’s work and your play converge. It’s what Warren Buffett means when he says he tap dances to work. Play to the end. Childish curiousity and maturity are not in opposition!
• Things that compound are virtuous
  • Momentum is like that. To get momentum one needs focus. I think the reason is that our minds are good at learning/better at forgetting. It takes a while for the flywheel of thought to get revving. Full immersion is the way to get there.
  • Starting from zero can be daunting. Better to build from what you did yesterday.
  • The week is probably the right atomic unit for measuring progress; a week is 2% of the year.
• Speed matters
  • Artificial deadlines are a great tool to avoid extraneous nonsense. Walkers trip more than runners (I don’t know if that’s true, but it sounds right :)).
  • Bumping against reality is the best corrective mechanism to self-delusion. Do it often.
• Ripple and learn, quickly
  • To ripple is to modify. The world will give you signal. Take that signal. Ripple again with the new knowledge.
• Do not shave spikes
  • Kids, Adults tend to spike in interesting ways. Nurture those - especially in children.
• Sin is mostly opportunity cost
  • Our actions ripple through the universe. What kind of ripples are we putting out there? Again, momentum.
• The things that matter the most come from immersion
  • Communication happens when you come back from the journey, the cave. To bring back fire you must have first gone to get it.
• We are information
  • While we are alive. More importantly after we’re gone. What kind of information would you like others to carry about you?
• You’ll never feel ready to have kids
  • But your parents, grand parents were probably less ready than you are. Just do it!
• Rebel against bloat
  • You can tell when a building was built by a committee. Ditto for software. Empower great individuals and smaller teams to do great work.
  • Generally smaller teams are preferable to larger ones.
• Earn your dopamine
  • Push for breakthroughs and challenges and hard work.
• Create new blueprints
  • What invisible limitations and beliefs are holding you back?
  • Onboading at Meta for Product Managers consists of a multi-week bootcamp. Imposter syndrome was a large theme. The better you are the more you tend to suffer this issue. You are not alone!
  • The laws of physics are the only limit

Current areas of interest:

• Applying AI and consumer technology to healthcare
• Figuring out how to be a better dad (always)

Here’s a (somewhat outdated) list of useful links:

• Blogging about Health Tech with an emphasis on new technologies, and how it impacts the Patient experience at The Rogue Patient
• A few years ago I battled a blood cancer cancer. You can read about that at that on Chemolog ebook
• West Acton Sauna (I run a Sauna/Ice Plunge company!)
• Proud member of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Big Climb Executive team
• Product School profile
• Inventor of COREwheels. See it on Instagram
• Profile on LinkedIn
• Github
• Reading list Good Reads
• Startup mentor and Advisor
• Running Strava
• Race results: Boston Marathon and other races