A rarely mentioned benefit of YC is Work At A Startup
1–10 of 28 posts
Re: A rarely mentioned benefit of YC is Work At A Startup
#2For being rarely mentioned, it sure is mentioned a lot...
Re: A rarely mentioned benefit of YC is Work At A Startup
#3Early employees have to work like crazy and get very little upside for the risk they take. It's literally the worst deal you can take, and in this economy it's just a bad idea - I imagine most of the candidates at WaaS right now are college grads who couldn't find a job.
Re: A rarely mentioned benefit of YC is Work At A Startup
#4Wow, Meru (W23) is offering $100k for an on-site job in SF with most likely terrible WLB. Can't believe i've never considered this website before
Re: A rarely mentioned benefit of YC is Work At A Startup
#5Wow, Meru (W23) is offering $100k for an on-site job in SF with most likely terrible WLB. Can't believe i've never considered this website before
The benefit for the companies hiring is that the candidates are up for getting exploited - I'm guessing that is what the posted tweet is referring to.
Re: A rarely mentioned benefit of YC is Work At A Startup
#6Early employees have to work like crazy and get very little upside for the risk they take. It's literally the worst deal you can take, and in this economy it's just a bad idea - I imagine most of the candidates at WaaS right now are college grads who couldn't find a job.
> Early employees have to work like crazy and get very little upside for the risk they take
For some people that is more interesting than a boring corporate job. There are lots of interesting aspects to being in a small company building something. Not everyone is trying to maximize monetary return on effort.
Biggest challenge with startups for experienced people in my experience is inexperienced founders who haven't sorted out the difference between coordinating work and telling people how to do something. But that gets better with time, and isn't a reason to abandon startups altogether.
Re: A rarely mentioned benefit of YC is Work At A Startup
#7Early employees have to work like crazy and get very little upside for the risk they take. It's literally the worst deal you can take, and in this economy it's just a bad idea - I imagine most of the candidates at WaaS right now are college grads who couldn't find a job.
Yes but if everyone listened to your advice, there will never be successful companies that once were a startup. Yes working at an early stage startup is mostly a gamble and the financial outcome is close to zero but people have other motives too. You can learn the most by working close to founders in a small startup. It will take years to learn the same (if even possible) in larger orgs where you are told what to do and cannot do things outside of your "job duties". Some people hate to work in boring corporate hell where their soul is being sucked away from them. I was one of those so I know the feeling.
"most of the candidates at WaaS right now are college grads who couldn't find a job"
I disagree. Few may be. Most? I wouldn't think so. Trust me, there are people who want to work for startups because they really want to work for them, not because they have no choice.
Re: A rarely mentioned benefit of YC is Work At A Startup
#8Early employees have to work like crazy and get very little upside for the risk they take. It's literally the worst deal you can take, and in this economy it's just a bad idea - I imagine most of the candidates at WaaS right now are college grads who couldn't find a job.
At the moment it's slim pickings out there, so even if you have to grind out a few years, it's better than nothing. Some people also enjoy the hectic environment. There're definitely ways to do startups that don't involve crazy hours and / or burnout, but it takes discipline and acceptance that you can only do so much in a day.
Re: A rarely mentioned benefit of YC is Work At A Startup
#9Early employees have to work like crazy and get very little upside for the risk they take. It's literally the worst deal you can take, and in this economy it's just a bad idea - I imagine most of the candidates at WaaS right now are college grads who couldn't find a job.
Yes but if everyone listened to your advice, there will never be successful companies that once were a startup. Yes working at an early stage startup is mostly a gamble and the financial outcome is close to zero but people have other motives too. You can learn the most by working close to founders in a small startup. It will take years to learn the same (if even possible) in larger orgs where you are told what to do…
In an age of 10 million dollar seed rounds there's more ability than ever for startups to pay competitive salaries to non-founders.
I did the early-employee-recently-out-of-college thing a while back, they weren't able to raise nearly as much; my boss would've LOVED to have the money to retain me when I got a closer-to-market offer from another company.
Re: A rarely mentioned benefit of YC is Work At A Startup
#10Early employees have to work like crazy and get very little upside for the risk they take. It's literally the worst deal you can take, and in this economy it's just a bad idea - I imagine most of the candidates at WaaS right now are college grads who couldn't find a job.
Yes but if everyone listened to your advice, there will never be successful companies that once were a startup. Yes working at an early stage startup is mostly a gamble and the financial outcome is close to zero but people have other motives too. You can learn the most by working close to founders in a small startup. It will take years to learn the same (if even possible) in larger orgs where you are told what to do…
> ” financial outcome is close to zero”
No. These startups still pay a salary, right? And I don’t think they that much less than your opportunity cost (at least my opportunity cost is not $500k at Google)