The hidden reality of working at a tech startup
Dear adventurer,
When you think of a startup, do you visualize a few folks building a technology product from a garage in Silicon Valley?
The myth is rooted in reality. It all began about 85 years ago in Palo Alto, California, with the world’s “first” startup, and a company you probably are familiar with: Hewlett-Packard.
Will one of the startups launching today become a similar tech giant? Maybe. But good luck figuring out which one.
Tech startups are more volatile than ever. So is it still the right move to build your career at one?
I ran a poll on LinkedIn to see what others think. The results were pretty evenly split. In my opinion, the answer is definitely “no” for some.
Years ago, I wrote about why startups are typically not a good place for recent college graduates. I stand by that today — jumping into a fledgling company when you do not have much experience yourself is generally a recipe for chaos. And the risk is even greater if you work remotely and do not have a chance to interact with many cross-functional teammates.
Startups can be incredible places for highly motivated people with a tolerance for uncertainty. But there are plenty of folks who might not thrive at a very young and unstable company. It all depends upon what you are seeking from your next professional venture.
Do you mainly want to "get rich quick"? Look elsewhere. Remember that of the many hundreds of tech startups that emerge each year, very few lead to meaningful growth or value creation for those who join. Even those that sparkle during boom times wobble towards disaster when market conditions turn bleak.
Career growth happens when you are clear about your goals and what type of work environment will enable you to make the most progress towards your objectives.
Personal development also hinges on the values of the company you join. When a company embraces its responsibility to serve customers, colleagues, and communities, teammates will have a good chance to find different ways to improve and advance. Lasting companies thrive during both go-go and go-slow times because they take a broad view of the value they create.
Chris Waters and I waited to hire at Aha! until we had more than 100 paying customers. It was important to be sure that the business was viable before risking the livelihood of others.
We were fortunate to find accomplished teammates who were passionate about our mission and able to contribute immediately — many of them are still with us in senior leadership positions today.
We also focused on creating sustainable career development programs. Within the first few years, we pioneered frameworks, an onboarding curriculum, and training resources so the company could support new hires and help the team grow in meaningful ways.
Our principled approach is unfortunately not common. You need more than enthusiasm for an awesome idea to succeed at a startup.
At Aha! we had the benefit of past experiences — good and bad — to inform how we built and scaled the company. Both Chris and I have worked at early-stage companies and founded a few as well (with varied levels of success).
The adventure of building a company is something I continue to relish. And I think if you can find the right opportunity, embarking on that adventure at the company's onset is often a terrific way to grow your skills at an accelerated pace. But it is not for everyone.
Of course, there are not that many open roles at startups right now. Many are experiencing layoffs or prudently pausing hiring. The fervor (and funding) for startups will eventually return, though.
So if you are thinking about whether now is the right time to join a tech startup as an early employee, consider the following:
Decision makers are limited
You do not choose the direction. At an early-stage startup, only a handful of people will be responsible for setting the company's direction.
Those folks might have different priorities and make different choices than you would. Although that is true of any organization, the impact is more deeply felt in a startup environment.
Is that something you can tolerate?
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Work is exposed
You will have nowhere to hide. That means that all of the work and any accomplishments or failures will be easy to see. The initial team will be small and the deliverables numerous. Folks will be learning as they go.
Are you ready for context-switching, close collaboration, working beyond your area of expertise, and rapid feedback cycles?
Personal growth is undefined
Your career growth will mostly be your own to manage. You will be doing work that people in the company have probably not done before. And you will likely have the opportunity to quickly learn new skills and contribute in new ways.
But startups do not usually have specific advancement paths or robust training programs in place at the beginning.
Are you interested in balancing that level of autonomy and responsibility?
Uncertainty is guaranteed
The future will not be obvious. It is a challenge to solve problems that have not been solved before. And what will make it more difficult is that you need people to pay you for something that has not existed before.
A startup can also be dramatically pushed by larger economic forces — impacting potential customers and funding (if you are trying to raise it). Most startups fail.
Are you comfortable confronting the unknown on most days?
There is nothing like the energy and excitement of building something new with a like-minded group. But there is little that is worse than when your effort has created no value.
If you have read this far, then you are likely someone who is thoughtful about your career path.
Maybe you have worked at a startup before and are craving the adventure once again. Maybe you are working at one now and layoffs loom ahead. Or maybe you have always worked at larger companies and are curious about a leap to startup life.
Build your career at a tech startup. Build your career at an established tech company. Build your career at a massive tech conglomerate.
I cannot tell you which one to choose — all three hold promise and different rewards.
What I suggest is that you dig deep into your own heart and mind. Where do you do your best work? How do you want to grow? What value do you want to create?
The answers will reveal which one is right for you, right now.
Keep exploring,
Brian
P.S. Aha! continues to build sustainably for the future. We are bootstrapped, profitable, and hiring for key roles.
Executive Coach | Leadership Strategy | Peak Performance | Harvard Psychology | Berkeley MBA
8 个月PRO: Ownership, directly seeing the impact of your work, excitement of starting something new, forced to learn a ton of skills CON: Depending on the experience of the founder, it might be a learning curve for EVERYONE - so you're not necessarily learning from someone who has done it before
Strategy Consultant | Business Analyst | Transformation Catalyst | Personal Branding Expert??I help you Transition to Tech & Achieve daily 1% Growth - CEO, Nebiant Analytics
8 个月This was really helpful Thanks Brian de Haaff
étudiant(e) à Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD)
8 个月Je pense qu’il faut nuancer même si c’est pas fait pour tout le monde comme d’ailleurs toutes les notions mais il faut essayer accuser de tous les moyens pour afin voir les résultats FRTN Technologies
There are a lot of variables here. First of all, the term " Startup" itself. I feel this word gets used way too broadly. To me a startup is closer to what that phrase was intended for" Starting up", as in you have a new idea-perhaps an untested one- and you need to literally start fresh from the ground floor. There is WAY more uncertainty and uncharted waters at that situation versus a company that has been around for 5, 10, 15 years. As such there is a very big difference as for the level of risk between a brand new actual startup versus a more established younger company. An established company will have worked out a lot of those early foundational problems and figured out a revenue stream versus a net-new company that has yet to cross that bridge. Second of all: The comments about recent college grads and startups. Almost all of the largest social media and search engine companies were started by fresh college grads. Young people can often bring fresh ideas and unconventional thinking to a given company. We will probably be seeing a LOT of recent grads whom will have become fully immersed in AI and its practical applications. Their fresh perspectives can be very valuable.
Co-Founder and COO/CPO at SkillCycle.
8 个月I have worked at three startups at different stages of their growth, in between stints at larger companies. Startups afford a degree of autonomy and opportunity to make an impact that is harder to find in larger orgs. Simply put: you are going make faster decisions and ship more. But it comes at the cost of the mentorship, experience and resources available to you at larger orgs. Timing is everything, though, and only some of it is in your control. I was fortunate to join a dot-com era startup that burned through piles of VC money in 18 months before crashing. I learned SO MUCH. But I meant more after first working for a few years for a great, old school manager at a big company. But had I entered the workforce a few years later, those opportunities might not have even been available.