It has been almost a year since I joined a tech startup.Startup for different people may mean different things, for some it means living a dream and for some living in a dream. For most of the people associated with a startup (including myself) Lean Startup is the best introduction of this amazing world, but I will not be discussing Lean methedology in this post.I would highly recommend lean startup by Eric ries if you haven’t read it yet .The things I will be sharing here are my own observations and my personal understanding of some of the important aspects of a startup.
Learning
In a startup, you will always have an opportunity to learn new things.Most of which are technical, many tech startups nowadays rely on open source technologies, many of them have a research aspect associated with their work.In a startup, you will not only gain many technical skills in a short span of time but you will know how to learn, what to learn and more imporantly what not to learn.
Entrepreneurship
In a startup, you will learn how a buisness works.You will network with future collaborators most of them are intelligently crazy people (you have to be crazy to start a startup at the first place). As you will work closely with an entrepreneur.You will learn how to build a company and/or product, for someone who wants to start one of his/her own it can be of great importance as Entrepreneurship is not taught, but it can be learned.On top of that you will be forced to try new things.
Rapid Adoption
In a startup things change instantly.As a startup environment is chaotic and volatile and one needs to adapt rapidly.Every day is hard yet differernt from one another.Your job description and/or designation changes faster then you expect it to be.
Steve blank, a professor at Stanford and founder of several companies asks those intrested in joining a startup ‘How comfortable are you with chaos?’.
Lots of work
In a startup there is lot of work which you have to complete within a specified time span.Occasionally there will be some stress but at the same time if you love what you do and are proud of it then it shouldn’t be an issue, although you will be pushed to your limits everyday.
Passion
In a startup one needs passion.Alhtough you may be workaholic or of high competative nature but that will not cut it.You need to have Passion for the things which you are doing, so that’s why you have to be very selective about what you want to work on.They say that No company is for every one.If you are not passionate about what you do then you are wasting your time and life is too short to do that.
Less money
In a startup you won’t find gold mines.Although many rich people are entrepreneurs or have been at some point of time, it is not recommended to join a startup if you want to earn huge amount of cash in short span of time (exceptions are always there).
In 2012 The Wall Street Journal reported that three out of four startups fail (75%),research conducted from 2004 to 2010 examning 2000 companies that had received at least $1 million in funding.
Know your-self
In startup you will explore everthing about your self.You learn, enjoy, win, loose, ask for help and accept failures.If you are not optimistic then you will become one.All in all how you approach problems will change.
Output over Outfit
In a startup what you wear is not an issue, but productivity is.You have to contribute continously in one way or the another.
As Enterpreneur David Bluhm notes All start-up people need to be ‘buisness builders’ versus single contributors and view building the processes around their job as a primary role of the job itself.
Culture
In a startup, culture is filled with fun, adventure, sometimes pranks and customs.Fitting into the startup’s culture (which varies from company to company) is very important as you have very small teams to work with.
Risk
In a startup you get comfortable with risks.Startup involves risks, learing about risks, taking/encouraging risks; it is a messy mission that could fail or change the world.So it helps a great deal if one has goodwill and deep relationship with his/her company.It is not bad to have that emotional ownership associated with your company as that will encourage you to work harder.
At last I would say working in a startup can be more than a job it can be a life changing experience.I would love to hear from you if you have any comments of suggestions or want to share your experience.