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She says: "There are a lot more startups today, and you can in effect become an early investor in one by going to work for it." It's important to remember that she means this for one very particular industry, and she is talking about a very particular kind of startup. Overall, there has been a steady decline in the number of startups during the last 30 years: https://www.fedinprint.org/items/fednsr/707.html "The firs…
You may have an easier time implementing the newest/fanciest tech at a startup but it's often the big companies where that tech is being created or where it could really move the needle :O.
Sure, Jessica Livingston is a reliable author, but most readers already had high enough confidence that these arguments are true such that this article didn't change much.
I suspect that these arguments are very familiar to HN readers. Thus, I don't know why it's on the front page. Sure, Jessica Livingston is a reliable author, but most readers already had high enough confidence that these arguments are true such that this article didn't change much.
The ranking algorithms are really weird on the weekends due to the lower volume of submissions.
> My 20-year-old self didn’t consider joining a startup—or founding one—as a career option, but I hope you will. I would think that the startup environment, and the job environment in general, is much different in 2015 than in 1993 , which puts the framing analysis as a post-rationalization that's essentially comparing apple-and-oranges. > And lastly, you will probably have to work long hours. But that wouldn’t have…
Precisely. A 20 year old should go out and get a job and gain some experience in a space and then, maybe, they'll be able to identify and solve a real-world problem.
I had very little sense as a 20 year old. And yet, judging by some of the articles I read here, I was positively worldly compared to some of the kids who are getting big money and starting companies. I have a hard time coming to terms with why seemingly sensible adults think this is a good idea.
> My 20-year-old self didn’t consider joining a startup—or founding one—as a career option, but I hope you will. I would think that the startup environment, and the job environment in general, is much different in 2015 than in 1993 , which puts the framing analysis as a post-rationalization that's essentially comparing apple-and-oranges. > And lastly, you will probably have to work long hours. But that wouldn’t have…
The official Y Combinator solution to that is to replace them with naive, fresh-off-the-plane, H1Bs.
It is fairly disingenuous of VCs and other investors to advocate for talented young people to start businesses without providing data on how most startup founders (and especially employees) do. From the limited amount of data on this I've seen, it looks like your odds of making any substantial amount of money is quite small and certainly if you're talented enough to found a successful startup you're probably talented enough to get a higher paying job at a more stable company. It might not be as glamorous, but it will give you time to focus on the things that are more important to you than money.
The risk of a startup has moved from investors to founders and now from founders to employees. Investors diversify their investments to minimize the risk. They don't really care if a particular startup they invested in will fail. They have tons of other investments... Now with this new generation of "entrepreneurs" who start five startup at a time, they are not too afraid of startup failure either. They did diversify…
Imagine an employee who chose the startup because she passionately shared its vision, and the position available was exactly what she wanted to be doing. She worked out a budget so that her family would be fine with the lower salary. She gets to do what she enjoys in a fast-paced environment learning many new skills alongside others who share her vision. If that startup fails, she's out of a job, and the equity she earned is worthless. If she was paid enough to stay within her desired lifestyle range without taking on debt, and she enjoyed working at the startup much more than she would have enjoyed being a cog in the BigCorp machine working on projects she felt indifferent about, then I believe her risk as a startup employee was relatively low.
Opinions will obviously vary depending on how important compensation (after a certain threshold) and prestige are versus working on what you want.
Another warning: Equity can be expensive. It can cost a lot of money to keep that equity when you leave the startup.
I was at a startup for 2 years and had 2% vested equity. I left the company 2 months ago. If I want to keep my equity, I have to exercise my stock options and pay ~$30k within the next month. If I don't, the equity disappears forever.
Being the first employee (or an early employee) of a startup seems to be the worst possible choice.
* none of the stability of a larger company * a salary which is likely less than market * 10 to 100 times less equity than a founder (So, in an exit, you'll make 10 to 100 times less money! Not all startups have billion+ dollar exits.) * a huge amount of responsibility - might not be as much as a founder, but still comparable * less influence and decision making ability than a founder * less insight into the finances of the business than a founder (without that insight, how will you know if that equity is worth anything?)
The only benefit I see of being an early employee is if the founder is a seasoned veteran who has already done this who you can learn from and be mentored by. But the vast majority of ycombinator founders seem to be new to the startup game.