# Josh Elman

> Josh Elman is a veteran Silicon Valley product leader and investor who helped grow Twitter nearly 10x, launched Facebook Connect, and backed foundational consumer products like Discord and Musical.ly at Greylock Partners. Currently Director of Product Management at Apple focused on App Store discovery, he is best known for his 'only metric that matters' framework - the idea that great products are defined by a core action users perform at a predictable frequency, not vanity metrics.

- **Role:** Director of Product Management at Apple (App Store)
- **Organizations:** Apple, Greylock Partners, Robinhood, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Zazzle, RealNetworks
- **From:** United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BS, Symbolic Systems (Human-Computer Interaction focus), Stanford University
- **Known for:** Grew Twitter's active user base nearly 10x during his product leadership tenure (2009-2011), Led launch of Facebook Connect (now Facebook Login), one of the web's most-used identity systems, At Greylock: backed Discord (now valued $15B+), Musical.ly (became TikTok), SmartThings, Houseparty, Medium, and more

## Career timeline

- **1995** — Interned at Microsoft during Windows 95 launch; worked on Excel chart gallery
- **1997-2003** — Product & Engineering at RealNetworks (RealPlayer, RealJukebox); helped stream first baseball games online
- **2003-2004** — Product Management Lead at Zazzle
- **2004-2006** — Senior Product Manager at LinkedIn; helped build early user growth models, launched v1 of LinkedIn Jobs
- **2007-2008** — Facebook Platform & Facebook Connect lead; launched what became Facebook Login
- **2009-2011** — Product Lead (Growth & Relevance) at Twitter; grew active user base nearly 10x
- **2011** — Joined Greylock Partners as Principal
- **2013** — Promoted to General Partner at Greylock Partners
- **2014** — SmartThings (portfolio) acquired by Samsung
- **2015** — Path (portfolio) acquired by Daum Kakao
- **2017** — Musical.ly (portfolio) acquired by ByteDance/TikTok; Jelly acquired by Pinterest
- **2018** — Joined Robinhood as VP of Product while remaining Venture Partner at Greylock; WhoSay acquired by Viacom
- **2019** — Left Robinhood after more than doubling user base; Houseparty acquired by Epic Games
- **2020** — Joined Apple as Director of Product Management for App Store discovery
- **2025** — Turned 50; published reflective essay; made angel investment in Ber Sarai Labs

## Achievements

- Grew Twitter's active user base nearly 10x during his product leadership tenure (2009-2011)
- Led launch of Facebook Connect (now Facebook Login), one of the web's most-used identity systems
- At Greylock: backed Discord (now valued $15B+), Musical.ly (became TikTok), SmartThings, Houseparty, Medium, and more
- Helped more than double Robinhood's user base, revenue, and product team as VP of Product
- Authored 'The Only Metric That Matters' - a foundational framework for product growth used across Silicon Valley
- Joined Apple in 2020 to lead App Store discovery - a role seen as bridging the VC/developer community and Apple
- High school knowledge bowl team won state championship three years in a row
- Appeared on Jeopardy!

## Latest updates

- **2025-09** — Turned 50; published reflective Medium essay 'fifty' exploring career, family, and the human cost of tech platform growth
- **2025-07** — Tweeted commentary on Figma's IPO process
- **2025-06** — Made angel investment in Ber Sarai Labs; tweeted about revisiting investment evaluation framework in context of AI
- **2024-01** — Continues as Director of Product Management at Apple App Store; remains active as angel investor and Discord board member

## Links

- Website: https://joshelman.medium.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshe
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/joshelman
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshelman

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/josh-elman
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-26