The startup life
I am transitioning to a financial analyst role at a late-stage startup ($50+ million in sales expected this year) and was wondering what life is like at a startup. Those who work at a startup, how do you navigate being at such a young company? Have some of you worked at multiple startups? How do you go about securing more equity (I will be getting some stock options to start but nothing crazy)? What are exit opps (other than the company killing it and everyone getting rich) like? Possible to move to VC? This company is in the healthcare industry, not tech.
Ik the answers to my questions will be highly variable based on company but some thoughts would still be great.
What stage is the company? How many shares were you allocated? What's the strike price? What's the total diluted shares?
They are late-stage, probably 2-3 years from being acquired by a strategic/PE.
Not willing to give information on stock options as I need to maintain anonymity.
Not a single relevant response on this? No one has any experience?
I have a couple friends who did the same thing. They enjoyed the experience. One is still at the start up company, and the other exited to a finance roll at a public company in the same industry.
This is only anecdotal, but I don’t see either jumping to VC etc.
Good luck!
How fast is the company growing? At $50MM a year the company should 2x - 4x by next year if it's a "startup". Anything less than that level of growth and IMO, it's not really that hard to survive as an employee.
If it is growing at that speed...
Get used to changes and the idea of making mistakes. A lot of corporate monkeys are too afraid to move fast and risk making a boo boo. If the company is growing quickly, it means you don't have time to sit around making well informed decisions. In a lot of ways, running a fast growing company is the same as executing a turnaround. If you like rules & precedent, you will not do well.
If the idea of growing your skill set quickly & being thrown into novel situations gets you excited, then you should join a startup and will likely do well. If you want to grow quickly and secure more equity, then you need to make it clear that you are capable of growing in skill set very very fast to the founders, and that you're an asset worth investing their time + comp into.
Exit opps? Other startups. Corporate positions at other established companies, etc...
BTW, I think joining most startups is dumb if you're not getting market level cash comp. The stonkz is like playing the VC game except you only get 1 bet and that is not how you play the VC game.
Thanks for the reply. My comp is market and I'm excited to learn at this place and hopefully grow my career faster as a result.
At the end of the day I'm leaving finance for industry and at this point I hope it's worth it.
So I did this. I joined a late stage software startup running fp&a. Went through a successful round of fundraising and an m&a process.
I think for me it was a great experience. I think i came away with a few lessons learned:
1) Really do your research on the product and management team and understand where you are positioned. I think to join a startup and get a good experience you want to attach your saddle to a good horse.
2) Make sure you can work with senior management if you are coming into a role where you have that interaction. Startups are quick to fire people who don’t have team fit or aren’t producing.
3) Join at late stage (series C or later) startup. As a finance person being super early isn’t great because the focus is going to be engineering and product. The good experience starts when you are really scaling the company / systems/ processes and preparing for an exit. Late stage also have a lower chance of failure and can pay more cash
4) Make sure the finance leader is really strong. I had the good fortune of reporting to a really strong manager who had been cfo of other software companies and was just a fantastic mentor to me. You want to be learning from someone really strong in order to get the best experience
5) Negotiate hard on comp. Try to get market cash comp + equity. Ask for current 409A valuation and share count to know where your equity lines up.
6) Expect to work very hard. I averaged 60 hours a week and did as much as 90 for several weeks straight during the m&a process.
Two final points in response to the OP:
Exits: As others have said other corporate finance jobs / startups are common. VC is less common but possible. Biggest “exit” benefit though is increased scope at a startup can allow you to accelerate your trajectory if leveraged well
Equity: Reality is finance employees are not priorities for equity unless you are CFO. Especially at late stage your equity grant is not going to make you rich unless you are the next Facebook. It’s a nice kicker and certainly was helpful financially since i was at a successful company with a strong exit but for finance startups are about experience not equity unless you are very senior.
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