Start ups are fun and exciting to most people because they see it as an opportunity to grow with the company and move up quickly. But start ups can definitely have their down sides.
Salary can be low, lots of work, long hours, lots of promised promotions that don't go through, disorganization, and if the company gets bought out you can be left hanging while only the founders make a pretty penny.
There are also a lot of upsides to them too if everything or most things go to plan you can end up growing exponentially in your career.
Do you think they are worth it?
I've done it and all I can say is that it really depends on the start up. There can be a tremendous amount of growth but I have also heard a lot of horror stories from people. Totally depends on the field too.
In my opinion it really is a hit or miss and you can usually get the company's vibe from the interview.
What kind of start up was it if you don't mind me asking? The others said there's were tech based so I wasn't sure if maybe your experience was better in another industry
it involved some but it was not based around tech in the way that a lot are.
I had an awful experience at one but like others have said it really depends. I was at a tech start up and I only did this bc I did not have much experience and startups usually take people with less experience on bc they would prefer to pay less for ppl who will work and learn hard. I was fine with that.
My boss was such a micro manager though and would hmu on slack until midnight and call me at 4:30 AM weekends and holidays and consistently made me feel like a human trash bag. He was insanely smart and a hustler but the turnover there was insane and I had to leave for my own sanity. Glad I made that choice. I learned a LOT so I wouldn't say the whole experience wasn't worth it but I will say staying there as long as I did was not.
Yeah I don't think anyone should ever really feel that their experience was not worth it but it is definitely important to know when it's time to go. I have a family member with a similar experience with her manager and she literally looked physically unhealthy bc it took such a toll on her. I also think that the manager in a start up has a huge impact on the experience. I know managers every where do but at start ups they really have to convey a clear message
Right I would not want to regret those 13 months. My management and just the business plan was not great. They are still up and running and almost everyone I started with is gone though
I had a terrible experience myself for the same reasons as mentioned above. I think you need to realize when all you can think of 24/7 is whether the company is going to fail and that you are a complete failure it is time to leave. I put my all into my work and although I didn't work in a very technical position, I noticed that industry as a whole can be too organized and stressful for my liking not to mention i out my everything into my work and felt like everyday was breaking me down. There are some personalities for it and I respect the hell out of those guys bc not everyone is cut out for that kind of thing.
Very True. I have worked at a company like this that had to do with selling/creating tech products but I was not involved with the engineering side much. I worked 12 hour days plus school and in put such a decline on my stamina for the same reason. But i think my management was rotten. When I have the right team i can put 150% of my time in and love every minute. I loe being a part of a business, just not when your management is incompetent
I mean call me boring I guess I just hate that kind of life style. I have kids and a family now and it doesn't make sense for me to sacrifice time with my wife and kids to worry about UE at their dance recitals. There are other jobs that will pay and the universe will still spin without you. I had to quit to realize that. I felt like quitting meant letting my whole team down when in reality half the people where in and out like a revolving door
I have a close friend who works for a startup and loves his team and direct superiors, he's getting good exposure, decent money and genuinely enjoys what he's doing. The flipside of this is that the CEO is an absolute dick who makes everyones life quite miserable whenever he interacts with them, my friend says half of his CTOs job is shielding the team from the CEOs nonsense.
Therefore I would say (from word of mouth experience) it's worth it, but be careful about the personality of and how involved the senior management are, I imagine if his CTO leaves and is replaced with someone who cares more about kissing arse than keeping his team happy his life will change drastically
I hear soooo manny stories like that!! Or worse the CTO can be replaced by someone like the CEO too. Add one rotten person into the mix in upper management and high turnover will always be a problem with the business. I have worked at a company that was bio tech but I was on the finance side. My team was so fun and great and the minute I went into the sales side of the building it was like someone died. That manager is apparently crazy though. Upper management has to be wary of hiring someone who is good bc it can cause a lot of problems if they are not a leader. Unless of course it is the Upper management that is the problem. If the CEO is rotten its doomed
Early on in your career (
Yes and No, it's totally depend on your career objective. If you want to build up your career then Startup are generally related to risk but if you want to take some experience then will switch to another company then it can really worth to start your career with a startup company.
Worked with a very small startup long ago, that eventually tanked. Here's my take:
The pros: 1. You get to take ownership of your work and can later brag about it on your resume, because even if you were able to accomplish only a percentage of your intended work, it will still have a direct impact on the operations. 2. If you can sit with the founders in the same room, it usually turns out to be a decent experience. This might be entirely subjective, or even a flawed assertion, but startups with approachable founders tend to offer better workplace environment. You get the feedback at he right time, might even get yourself a set of mentors for the long haul. The more valuable thing, though, is getting to see things from their perspective. 3. Very, very rare - but a chance at the sweat equity side of things. 4. The learning curve is very steep, because you usually don't have the time to formalize things. You don't know it, you ask your colleague and she/he doesn't know it. You Google/YouTube it, learn it and implement it. Shoot! It doesn't work. You rework on it and tada - it works. It gives you your own process of picking up things. Assuming there is some feedback mechanism at the place, you can learn a boatload of stuff in a matter of weeks and get to apply it too. 5. The feeling of affiliation - Startups go through existential volatility pretty consistently for the initial days. You go through it as a team; you get it right - you live another day to celebrate. You get it wrong - you learn an expensive lesson. All of this builds great camaraderie between people. I remember, the cofounder called me to his place for lunch along-with the entire team when I was in the second week of my internship.
The Cons: 1. If the founder is a dick, it will be a shitty experience. Just across the wall was a shitty startup; they came in early and almost never left. Their folks looked tired and never greeted anyone outside their office. Either the guys were aliens slowly working on a global-domination plan, or they had a dickhead CEO. 2. Every day is a fire drill day. Zero relaxation time available. 3. Shitty paycheque sizes. 4. No one knows about the company. So, if it tanks later on, it becomes difficult for you to explain what you did. 5. Most probably, you will end up doing much more than you were hired for. While this might work for a lot of people, the ones who are in mid-late stages of their careers, it will not make any logical sense.
At the end of things - if the founders are competent and approachable, the work culture is not that toxic, you are getting to implement things and are only starting in your career, I guess, it can be a net positive experience.
Isa, shoot me a PM to discuss. I'd love to talk about my experiences over PM.
It's so fucking dumb to work for a startup unless you own real equity with real upside. Seriously. Don't do it unless you're getting LIQUID equity with actual upside. Key word being LIQUID.
This is coming from a bonafide startup whore.
That's my perspective as well. And you also want to be in a role that is crucial to the business - don't be the equivalent of back office at a startup. Sure, you can do great if you're Head of Marketing at a startup that becomes a future unicorn, but if things get tough you'll be one of the first to go.
I think people mistakenly bucket startup and corporate based on pay, future payout, and stability. Yes these matter but what makes or breaks your experience is the quality of TEAM and the quality of your ROLE.
As many of you on here should know, even the perfect job can be ruined by a bad boss or a team that is uninvested in their work. To me, working with people that align with you and have a shared common end goal is bar none the most important factor in workplace satisfaction. Micromanagers exist whether it's your startup's insane CEO or your bathshit crazy BB MD and they can both fuck up your life no matter how amazing or life changing your work is.
Your role matters a lot to. Are you going to be silo-ed into a particular function? Are you expected to wear many hats? Can you deal with ambiguity? I know MD's in ER who let their Associate essentially build out their own franchise under them and have complete freedom to handle clients. In contrast, there's startups where management wants everyone to just do what they're told. Be VERY aware of the expectations that your role entails.
At the end of the day, look at the people you're working with and HONESTLY answer to yourself whether you'd enjoy being around them day in and day out. If I could be around people I loved to work with and I felt a sense of belonging and a higher purpose and had a support group that stuck with me, I'd gladly take a pay cut and no equity just for that (to an extent)
I've interviewed for FP&A roles with three unicorns and received offers from two but turned both down because the culture was weird as shit. Great pay but not worth working with people who sound like Scientologists when they talk about the company.
I think MBA students at top programs who want to work at FAANG or a startup, are deeply mistaken in the vast majority of cases. Since this thread is about startups, I will address that aspect.
-Startups are a TON of work and more stressful than "regular" jobs. It takes a certain type of personality to love and succeed in it, and most MBAs don't have it. After all, MBA is a safe bet while startups tend to attract true risk takers.
-Vast majority of startups fail. And with those that make it, it will take a long time before your equity holdings become liquid cash. Unless you already have a ton of cash saved up, I don't see how this is a viable career path.
Well said. I had a few people try to join us at the partner level earlier this year expecting salaries that didn't understand it's an eat what you kill situation when you own the firm. Until you kill you run at a burn.
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