First figure out for sure just what you are you looking for out of a startup. Personally, my reason for wanting to work for a startup compared to a large corporation is to get to have more influence and work on a wider variety of interesting problems across different domains. And you can get that without needing to be in a business that has potential to grow to a billions of dollars valuation. But if you're interested in maximizing your chances for crazy sums of money while you're at a time in your life that lets you take risks (and there's nothing wrong with going after that, just don't make plans around an assumption that it'll happen), that'll drive your search in a different direction.
Ask HN: How should I evaluate a startup as I job hunt?
31–40 of 65 posts
Re: Ask HN: How should I evaluate a startup as I job hunt?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a tough job market, I agree that would be an important factor to consider. But it's not a tough job market for hackers now, to put it mildly. I've never seen such demand for hackers. A good hacker who wanted to ditch a dying startup today could find a new job more or less instantly.
This is not universally true. I for example cannot leave Perth, Australia. I'm doing the startup boogie from here. And there aren't many dance partners. So the dynamics of hiring in Silicon Valley, Seattle and New York hold about as much validity for me as the far side of the moon. (Wherein I partially sink my own argument).
A million times this. I'm in Auckland, New Zealand and it's quite scary sometimes when you run in to people trying to pretend they're in the valley the way they run their startup. It just is not the same out here: less money, less funded startups, less startups in general, very few supporting anything more than the founders, if they even do that. SV and NYC are outliers globally.
Re: Ask HN: How should I evaluate a startup as I job hunt?
#33Perhaps what not to use as an evaluation?
Re: Ask HN: How should I evaluate a startup as I job hunt?
#34Think like an investor and a normal job seeking employee when making these decisions. Is the idea going forward and the equity going to be worth a lot eventually. You might not be throwing $100k their way but you're investing your time, which has value, in the startup. The thinking like an employee is just like any other job hunt, find a place you want to work and will be happy there but be ready for layoffs, crashes, etc like any business can face.
Things to consider: -The leadership, is it someone you want to work for and if multiple people do they get along with one another. -How much you believe in the idea, if you're not all to crazy about the ideas you come across in your job search then you may be better off applying for a more stable company. -Their funding, if they are funded that makes it easier for them to pay you continuously. -Their offer to you, the questions that matter with this is how much of both cash and equity will you be receiving, how much you believe in the idea and what you believe that stock will be worth later on, and what your base salary is. If you're not head over heals in love with the idea and whole heartedly believe it's the next big thing with the original founder already having done market research/testing to prove that customers want the product then don't be the technical cofounder of a 'potentially' successful company.
Re: Ask HN: How should I evaluate a startup as I job hunt?
#351. Do you and the team share the same passions?
2. Can you live with these folks 24/7?
3. If things go south do you feel like you were better for the experience?
Re: Ask HN: How should I evaluate a startup as I job hunt?
#36Financially, as if you were an investor. They're the people whose job it is to evaluate startups' prospects, and they care above all about two things: the founders and the market. The founders should be relentlessly effective, and the market should ideally be of a size that can only be obtained by riding on trends beyond the startup's control (but visible to few besides the founders, or the market would already be fu…
I respectfully disagree. If you receive equity, then sure, take this into consideration. But OP isn't a professional investor. He isn't risking other people's money. He is betting his own financial stakes on the venture. The outer scope is as you say -- will this company go on to greater heights? But the inner scope is -- given my personal appetite for risk, can they make pay day? This person is, I presume, young and…
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Re: Ask HN: How should I evaluate a startup as I job hunt?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unless the OP will be getting a significant portion of preferred stock (viz. it won't be clawed back and it will receive money in the exit), I doubt that evaluating the company as an investor would is a good idea. Piggybacking on the YC filter would mean joining a company that already has VC money, so potential employees should be doubly careful about their percentage of stock and their stock options. It would be muc…
I think what you mean is preferred stock. And (a) the distinction only matters if the startup does badly, in which case it doesn't matter much, and (b) the founders don't have preferred stock either, so an employee is in the same boat as them. (It is vanishingly rare for individual employees to get their stock/options taken back. Zynga is the only recent case I know of.) It is certainly not true that joining a YC com…
As you say, I did mean preferred stock. You caught me before my edit :)
I still stand by the assertion that investors are looking for something different than the typical employee. It seems to be a large risk for a large reward; I don't want to presume to speak for you, but usually investors are both looking for a large exit that an employee will not really benefit from, and can be involved with many companies at once to minimize their risk.
I definitely agree for investors that the startup you pick is more important than the stage its in when you pick it. But that's still involving a significant chunk of the stock even in later rounds. Ultimately, unless the employee is getting a large chunk of the company (in which case he should think as an investor and would be wise to go for YC companies) the decision process should be different.
Re: Ask HN: How should I evaluate a startup as I job hunt?
#38Thanks for asking this!
Re: Ask HN: How should I evaluate a startup as I job hunt?
#39Financially, as if you were an investor. They're the people whose job it is to evaluate startups' prospects, and they care above all about two things: the founders and the market. The founders should be relentlessly effective, and the market should ideally be of a size that can only be obtained by riding on trends beyond the startup's control (but visible to few besides the founders, or the market would already be fu…
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Re: Ask HN: How should I evaluate a startup as I job hunt?
#40[deleted]