How to Choose a Startup to Work for by Thinking Like an Investor • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Choose a Startup to Work for by Thinking Like an Investor

#151

Post by JohnFen » Tue, Jan 08, 2019, 5:38 PM UTC

qqqwerty wrote: post #140

deanmoriarty wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something I never understood about this attitude ("... then I'm absolutely willing to work for less pay ...") is: why there are almost no examples of such behavior in other highly paid professions, such as physicians or lawyers? Very rarely you'll find physicians saying "I really want to become a brain surgeon, I'll happily take 40% less than my market rate". You'll certainly find physicians doing volunteering, but t…

There are a few factors that you are overlooking. A lot of startups (and small companies) aren't on the 'SV Unicorn Track', particularly so for startups focused on 'hard' problems. Energy, biotech, aerospace, etc.. These types of startups often have to cobble together funding from a variety of sources (grants, strategic partnerships/investments, niche VC firms). The pay is lower because it has to be, funding is limit…

> A lot of startups (and small companies) aren't on the 'SV Unicorn Track'

Yes. My willingness to work for less pay if the work is interesting enough only applies to those sorts of companies. The stereotypical SV-style business has no appeal to me regardless of what sort of work is involved. Been there, done that, learned my lesson!

Re: How to Choose a Startup to Work for by Thinking Like an Investor

#152

Post by dabockster » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 4:19 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #114

kelp wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps also luck, but I’ve managed to have a spidy sense for when things are going the wrong way, and got out / moved on before it got that bad.

What are some of the signs/symptoms that trigger your spidy sense?

The big one for me was realizing that my boss had lied about knowing how to code. Other red flags include code and documentation quality, how the business sells itself to potential customers (does it greatly oversell it’s abilities), the expiration date of the coffee/tea in the break room (I got food poisoning when I drank the startup’s three year expired tea - the founders were still wondering why they felt like crap all the time when I left), etc.

It’s really a bunch of little things that, when seen as off all at once, will trip your spidey sense to jump ship.

Re: How to Choose a Startup to Work for by Thinking Like an Investor

#153

Post by dabockster » Thu, Jan 10, 2019, 4:20 PM UTC

kkotak wrote: post #80

dabockster wrote: post #64

TripleByte is a hiring agency with a financial interest in placing people with startups of all sizes and financial states. This information should be taken with a grain of salt.

And in my experience they focus solely on tech IC candidates, which is not for everyone.

I’m out of the loop. What do you mean by tech IC candidate?

Re: How to Choose a Startup to Work for by Thinking Like an Investor

#154

Post by kelp » Fri, Jan 11, 2019, 1:58 AM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #114

kelp wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps also luck, but I’ve managed to have a spidy sense for when things are going the wrong way, and got out / moved on before it got that bad.

What are some of the signs/symptoms that trigger your spidy sense?

Mostly it's business growth stalling with no clear plan to fix it.

If you don't have visibility into that, there are other warnings signs, like various spending cuts. No straight answers to questions about that stuff.

Not providing visibility into the business is also a warning sign, in my opinion.

I've also left companies when they started making pretty weird business bets that I dind't think would pan out.