We need a new definition for startup

Let me Tarantino this a bit: We're hiring a Sales Engineer and a Front-End Engineer at Malartu. They will be employees number one and two for our fintech startup here in Raleigh, NC. Now let's go back...

The last personal note I posted here was about the new direction Malartu was taking as we began building our business intelligence platform to solve a need we saw after making 25 startup investments across the Southeast.

Turns out that was a great move. So good, that about 9 months ago we shut down all investment initiatives in order to focus solely on our new BI platform. About 3 months ago we started shipping the new software to customers and, against some tough odds, have hit every single revenue goal we've set, plus some. We'll be in the black by the end of the year. If you'd like to see what the new-do looks like, check out our website.

Our baby sales gong in our baby office

So now we're in the fortunate position to be hiring two new folks to fill out our office in HQ Raleigh and I've stumbled on an interesting revelation: Startups have become very, very sexy and very, very misunderstood. The problem is the fundamental misunderstanding of what a startup is, or, more specifically, how ambiguous the word "startup" has become.

I've learned this through a handful of early conversations with both candidates and close connections who have been helping us to build a candidate pool. We're attracting some really talented people but not the people crazy enough to both make the jump and love the struggle after you stick the landing.

I think this is because somewhere between the days of the Homebrew Computer Club and WeWork's $20 billion valuation it started being more sexy to wear branded t-shirts to work than it was to create something commercially valuable out of nothing. There are benefits to both, don't get me wrong, but I'd wager almost everyone would rather be more physically comfortable at work while very few would rather take on infinitely more challenges.

So the trouble is in finding the crazies who want infinite challenges with the possibility of life-changing success and the probability of total failure.

Joining a startup as employee number one, two, four, or even 20 is not like working at Google, and not something the average Indeed.com applicant is looking for, however fun it might be to imagine that startup swag when you sign on.

This is way more fun.

This is way, way more crazy.

This is the most risky job you will ever take (until you do it again).

Seed stage startups are fundamentally different financially, culturally, and operationally.

Financially, being an early employee at a seed-stage startup means you're going to trade a higher salary for more stock options. You're probably not going to have great benefits, if you have benefits at all (side note: we actually have pretty good benefits).

Operationally, everyone on the team wears a few hats, not because they want to (although we hope you do), but because they have to. In the same breath you might pitch a $400k deal to a new prospect, you will take out the office trash. After you ship that major feature to production, you're going to need to respond to support tickets.

Culturally, you are literally working with 3 other people all. day. long. Although many startups make a point to take weekends and reasonable work hours seriously, like we do, we also expect everyone to pitch in to put out fires when they arise, at virtually any time. The good news is this isn't a problem because it's what you want to do because it's something you really care about. If you join a startup, make sure it's something you really care about.

I think a lot of people have read excerpts like this before but few people really understand them. None of what I just wrote is ball-pit work spaces or taps of office cold brew. That's after you've assembled a great team, after you've proved you've created something commercially valuable, and after you've proved you can sell it. What I'm talking about is proverbial server racks in the closet and folding tables in the garage. It's really hard and I can't understate this enough: it's a huge risk. You join a startup this early and you're in the great game. You're one of the crazies. You can wear a t-shirt to work but probably because the A/C is broken.

So that leads me back to the reason of this post: we're hiring. By now you're probably like... "lol..." so let's talk specifically about why Malartu is where you want to work.

Financially, we're incredibly focused. As founders we've been on both sides of the table - we understand how investing in startups work, how investors make money, how early employees make money, and how businesses make money. For that reason, we've set out to build a self-sustaining company. We've raised outside capital with a bootstrapped mentality. We will raise venture capital, but we won't raise significant amounts until we have replicable, profitable sales processes, an understanding of our target customers, and a product to fit (at least a portion of) their needs. We've checked a lot of those boxes but we have many more to go before we go for the office foosball table (this will happen though, promise.)

Operationally, I'd say we're one of the more mature startups I've met at this stage. That doesn't mean we have all the answers, but it means we operate systematically: every move is deliberate and we build playbooks from what works. We've focused on this early so that it's not a problem late, because you can be damn sure we're going to get there. Two of our core values are: be decisive, be systematic. We have a lot to learn as we continue down this path but I assure you, everyone on our team knows what they should be working on at all times to move the needle, and that is a beautiful thing.

Culturally, we are close. Incredibly close. By design. We'll spend nearly a quarter of our lives at work, so you better like the people you work with. We're building a culture where in tough times, and there are tough times, no one is worried about the other jumping ship, we're only worried about how we solve the problem together so we can get to the next level. We hold each other accountable for our actions, mis-actions, mistakes, and successes. We're competitive and we have a ton of fun. To that note, I guarantee our CTO can beat you in any bar game of your choice. Join the engineering team and find out for yourself.

We are going to be successful and have a blast while doing it.

That is, admittedly, the sexy part.

How we get there, and especially how we start down that path, can be far less sexy and far more difficult than the survivorship-bias-fueled stories you've read in TechCrunch, or the new office space you read about after the $30 million round.

If you're ready to join the great game and a team of genuine, good, downright crazy human beings, drop me a note (sean [at] malartu [dot] co), I'd love to talk to you.

If you know of anyone who might be a good fit, please send them this post or these job listings.

Fellow founders, I'd love to hear how you built your teams in the early days, drop some knowledge in the comments below and we can all learn together.