JoshuaBauder

Most of my career has gone into building product teams and shipping the products those teams make.

I'm VP of Product at Fruition, where I built the Product, Design, and Engineering functions from scratch and serve on the executive leadership team. Before Fruition, I held a senior management role at 3Pillar Global and advised Cadent on product in ad tech. Along the way I've worked with organizations including Disney, ESPN, Lockheed Martin, Nielsen, the LPGA, and Rent-A-Center. Those companies couldn't be more different from each other, but the core challenge was always the same: figure out what people actually need, and build something good enough that it becomes part of their day.

That's still what I care about most. I want to build products people love and use every day. Not products that look great in a pitch deck or check every box on a feature list, but ones people come back to because their work or their lives are genuinely better with them. Getting there takes a lot of listening, a willingness to cut ideas that aren't working, and the discipline to keep asking whether what you're building is solving a real problem.

It also takes the right team. I've hired and mentored a lot of product managers, designers, and analysts, and I've learned that great products almost never come from one brilliant person. They come from teams that understand the customer, trust each other, and know how to make good decisions without waiting for permission. Building that kind of team is some of the most rewarding work I do, and I measure it by what happens after I leave. If a team still needs me to function, the job isn't done.

I started Forty4 to bring that experience to more companies. I work with founders who are trying to turn an idea into a product people will pay for, product leaders who want a seasoned partner to think through strategy or strengthen their team, investors who need an honest read on a company's product and technology, and established businesses building technology for the first time. Every engagement looks a little different, but the goal is always the same: help you build something people want, and leave you with a team that can keep doing it.

I live in the New York area and work with teams both in person and remotely. If you're wrestling with a product decision, building a team, or just want a second opinion on where things are headed, reach out. I'm always happy to talk it through.