Kenneth Norton

Ken Norton is a longtime product leader turned venture partner and executive coach. He spent more than 14 years at Google (roughly 2006–2020), where he led product for major consumer products including Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Mobile Maps — work that reached billions of users. He is credited as a listed inventor on more than forty issued patents. Before Google, Norton was one of the earliest employees at CNET and the founding CTO of its spinoff Snap (later NBC Internet), led product teams at Yahoo, and served as VP of Product at JotSpot, the wiki startup Google acquired in 2006.

Within Google, Norton moved to GV (Google Ventures), where he spent roughly a decade as a Partner. In that role he helped lead the firm's Startup Lab and advised more than 300 portfolio companies on product strategy, product-manager hiring, OKRs, and scaling product organizations. He became widely known in the product community for his essay "How to Hire a Product Manager" and for the catchphrase "bring the donuts" — his shorthand for the servant-leadership ethos he believes great PMs should embody, which he debuted in a talk at Berkeley's Haas School of Business.

Norton left GV in 2020. He was reported by Axios (October 2020) to be joining design-software company Figma as a product leader, and he launched his independent practice, Bring the Donuts, LLC, around the same time. Today his primary work is executive coaching for senior product and technology leaders, complemented by speaking, writing (the widely read "Bring the Donuts" newsletter, with tens of thousands of subscribers), startup advising, and angel investing.

Norton holds a B.A. from Boston University and an M.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). He is a credentialed coach, holding the Professional Certified Coach (PCC) credential from the International Coaching Federation and the Certified Professional Co-Active Coach (CPCC) designation, among other certifications.

• Invests at the seed/early stage with angel-scale checks (~$10K–$50K, ~$25K sweet spot per NFX Signal).
• Backs companies with "strong product-led growth potential, innovative solutions to real-world problems, and visionary founders who demonstrate exceptional product acumen" (as characterized on his Startup Intros profile).
• Gravitates toward software he understands deeply — SaaS, developer tools, B2B software, and AI — reflecting a career built on consumer and productivity product management.
• Adds value less as a check-writer and more as a product-and-people advisor: his differentiation is hands-on help with product strategy, PM hiring, OKRs, and scaling product teams, drawn from advising 300+ GV portfolio companies.
• Philosophy signal: his "bring the donuts" ethos favors founders who are low-ego, team-first, and willing to do the unglamorous work to help their teams win.