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Want to found a startup? Work at one first

blog.lawrencejones.dev

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Re: Want to found a startup? Work at one first

#41

Post by wzwy »

This article is not really about what’s unique about working at a startup that can give you an advantage when founding your own, but more about how to accelerate the learning of skills required to do so. Hence, the emphasis on high-growth startups.

But, obviously, not all high-growth startups can provide an environment of rapid learning. It’s not just about high-growth; it’s also about how much output the startup is trying to extract from its people. The more they try to extract, the faster the learning cycle. In that case, a high-growth startup with limited resource seems to be the ideal company to work for.

Re: Want to found a startup? Work at one first

#44

Post by mritchie712 »

atlasunshrugged wrote: post #26
mritchie712 wrote: post #20

We have a "Founders Program" for people that know they want to start a company in the next few years. I think it's better to have full transparency on both sides: As the company: You get highly motivated, amazing talent As the employee / future founder: You make your intention clear to leave in x months to start your own thing and can openly discuss strategy for your company with the current founders instead of hidin…

That's a super cool program, props to you for actually putting it in place! I guess the next step is to also have a small internal vc mechanism (or partnership with a vc firm) that gives the first check to people who join? I know that'd be a huge plus for me just as an option for something I could potentially rotate to in the future if I was thinking of joining a new co, it definitely sends a strong pro-entrepreneuri…

We'd never write checks out of the company, but I personally angel invest and make intros to our investors and any others I've talked to. I've pitched nearly every VC someone would want to talk to.

Re: Want to found a startup? Work at one first

#45

Post by mritchie712 »

lawrjone wrote: post #33
atlasunshrugged wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the angel investing, I was thinking that was the next logical step too but rather than building an internal mechanism and pulling focus I wonder if you could just partner with an early stage vc to give them first look in return for special consideration and earlier mentorship or something. Tons of early vc's with dry powder and minimal differentiation to lean on!

Chris (one of our founders) just pointed out that we (incident.io) are signed up to the future founder promise: https://github.com/StellateHQ/future-founder-promise So we are doing exactly this, which is cool! I think the primary value is in leveraging the investor network, as you say, though the angel investment is a nice bonus.

Awesome! Just saw this pull request, would love to have Luabase added!

https://github.com/StellateHQ/future-founder-promise/pull/6

Re: Want to found a startup? Work at one first

#46

Post by TrackerFF »

invitrom wrote: post #5

Hmm I feel like most founders I know just started companies after college without much experience. While people that want to get experience first seem to never end up starting a company. I think it mostly comes down to risk adversity.

Just to contrast this: Most of the startup founders I've met, have previously worked in consulting (think McKinsey, Bain, BCG, etc.).

Which I guess makes sense, as they've been exposed to certain industries from top to bottom, as well as people with enough funds to actually invest.

Re: Want to found a startup? Work at one first

#47

Post by coldcode »

I wish I had had that opportunity back in 1985 when I founded my first one, but being outside of the Bay Area (as in 1500 miles away) there were basically no software startups at all, and with no internet/web/ycombinator etc, no way to learn anything except by trying and failing. We did ship our product, do marketing, make some sales but not enough so we had to sell the product and close down. Today I know all things I did wrong but back then you were working in a world unlike today, and not even one person to ask as everyone starting software companies back then was just as clueless unless you were in a few places in the country. It's hard to explain to people today just how hard this was (for example I tried to borrow some money at a local bank to buy computers, and when told we were a software company, the loan officer assumed we were making ladies undergarments).

Re: Want to found a startup? Work at one first

#49

Post by luxurytent »

No doubt my desire to start my own thing has increased 10x since joining a startup (back in November)

Why? I think it's a mix of:

- Getting comfortable building from scratch (we're early stage so almost everything we are doing right now is from the start)

- Getting comfortable with new technologies that previously felt inaccessible to me (ML, AI)

- Founders are very transparent with the operational and legal details of our startup, so I learn a bit here and there about the non-technical hard things

- The chase for the first dollars. This is really energizing (and hard) part of where I am at right now. It can be prone to burnout, but I do now want to try and go for my first $100/month

Re: Want to found a startup? Work at one first

#50

Post by wzwy »

Jgrubb wrote: post #39
polote wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah so what you explain is that you have more confidence about what your do, but that says nothing about the success rate of previous startup employee vs success rate of others

Yes, having experience in a domain can help you be more confident in your decisions. Are you trying to argue that experience plays no role in long term outcomes of building businesses?

I don’t think he’s arguing about the benefit of having confidence and experience in a domain, but rather the origin of the experience and confidence and how it impacts a startup’s success.

In this case: the startup success rate of those who worked for startups vs those who worked in some other institutions (or for some, no work at all).

Sure, working at a startup might make you be confident at making decisions, but will that confidence lead to good results when you’re a founder? Working at another place can give you confidence as well, but again, will it help you get the results you want in your startup?

Anyhow, I’m not sure the answers matter much because the author didn’t write much about the uniqueness of the skills learnt in startups. He emphasised more on velocity of learning skills that can be learnt in many places, but high-growth startups can provide the fastest route.

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