Hi, I’m Brandon.

I’m building Every AI in Toronto. Before that, I worked on product at Shopify.

I also write about product management and invest in early-stage companies.

Investing

I invest in early-stage companies. I’m also on the boards of Motion and Heard.

Boards

Some companies I’ve backed

All 72

Writing

I write about product management, mostly at The Black Box of Product Management. Some lines from those essays:

  1. Your goal with prioritization is to always be doing the work that maximizes customer value created over time. Ruthless Prioritization, 2017
  2. Deadlines make product teams better, and that’s why I believe in them. Deadlines, 2017
  3. You can be right 99% of the time, but if you’re wrong the 1% of times when it really matters, you’re not an effective decision maker. Making Good Decisions as a Product Manager, 2017
  4. Everything starts with the goal. The First Principles of Product Management, 2018
  5. Customer research and validation is critical, but it can’t always make decisions for you. A Bad Product Decision, 2016
  6. Being a PM is the best job in the world to “practice startup”. Managing and Developing Product Managers, 2018
  7. I still believe saying Hey and Thanks matters. Why Hey and Thanks still matter, 2016
  8. It doesn’t matter if they brought their lunch, just asking matters, and shows you care. Start with Lunch, 2015

All 26 posts. Press / to search them.

How I got here

I started in finance at a big company. Then a neighbour and I sketched a music startup on a napkin, won $5k at a local pitch competition, and I quit my job the next day. Neither of us could code. I’ve worked in product ever since.

  1. 2025 – now

    Every AI Co-founder

  2. 2015 – 2023

    Shopify Product

    Mostly the platform and the app ecosystem.

  3. Before that

    FreshBooks Product

  4. 2011 – 2013

    Tunezy Co-founder

    The music startup from the napkin. I left after two years, and it sold soon after.

  5. At the start

    A big company Finance

    Good job, good people. I was bored.

Some photos

  • Brandon smiling, in a grey sweatshirt, against a light grey wall
    Toronto
  • Brandon in the middle of a story, one hand up, in a beige jacket
    Product Faculty, 2023
  • Brandon and Craig Miller on a video call, both in headphones
    Recording my podcast with Craig Miller, 2021
  • Brandon on stage in front of large Mind the Product letters
    Mind the Product, San Francisco, 2019
  • Brandon giving a keynote on a dark stage, with a growth chart behind him
    Keynote at Shopify Unite, 2018
  • Brandon on stage in a dark jacket and a white T-shirt
    A Day with Shopify, UK, 2018

My podcast

Talks and interviews

14,915 contributions on GitHub in the past year, across 247 days. Most are in private repos. Why it matters

Say hi

Email is the best way to reach me. DMs on X work too.

brandon@brandonmchu.com @BrandonMChu

Need a bio for an event?

Brandon Chu is a co-founder of Every AI. Before that, he led product teams at Shopify. He writes The Black Box of Product Management, invests in early-stage startups, and lives in Toronto.

For a photo, use this one.

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