Working for a startup
A student asked me: “What is a startup and when does a company stops being a startup? Should students work for startup to get more money instead of working for established company?
Answer: A startup is a company that is still trying to figure out its business model. It is still seeking to find customers and it is still learning how to make its business profitable. In this case, clearly Google is not a startup anymore and Facebook is also not a startup. A company is no longer a startup if it is highly profitable, or grows to certain size (i.e., few thousand employees) or becoming publicly traded on the stock market after an Initial Public Offering (IPO), or managing by professional management with well organized structures, well defined roles and responsibilities. Of course it also stops to be a startup when it fails and cease to operate.
Students who want to work for startup just to get rich will be disappointed. There are so many up and down and failures in startup and most do not make any money at all. Entrepreneurs start company because they like to do something they love, they have passion for the technology and they want to make a difference with their visions. The reality is only few will get rich but it does not stop others from doing what they love. Most startup employees need to understand that they are following a vision for a journey that the outcome is uncertain. Startup is a journey where they will learn a lot. They will also learn how to become another entrepreneur in their next journey. If you want to get rich and a stable job than working for startup is a wrong decision.
You should not join a startup as just joining a company. You should think of joining the startup as a learning process where your learn how to start your own company someday. It is possible that you may work for few startups to learn all the good things and bad things before starting your own company. No place can teach you more than working for a startup as you are dealing with situation that no business school can teach you. Maybe you will get rich working at a startup, but more importantly you will learn all the good decisions and bad decisions from the founders and use them as experience for your next venture. The startup world is extremely volatile but if you are willing to work hard, and act with integrity then you could be successful in whatever you do. And hopefully you will start your own company and then help others do the same.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
