Joining a startup

[goldengirlz]

I think there might be a few people here who’ve worked for startups. What advice do you have for someone considering it? And is now an absolutely terrible time to be doing something so risky?

I got an interesting email from a recruiter today. They’re basically looking for someone to start a team that does what I currently do — so the appeal is I’d be the one building something from the ground up (and at the top of the food chain) rather than middle management.

The company is established in the sense that they already have several hundred employees and they’re more than five years old. They’ve also raised a boatload of money. OTOH, they aren’t profitable yet. They’re a startup in the sense that they’re still trying to scale their business model — but rumor has it they could be an IPO candidate in the near-ish future, which I guess is the draw. They’re not quite a household name (my parents wouldn’t know who they are), but younger people have heard of them and may even use their product.

How do I gauge how crazy (or not) this is? I’d be giving up a REALLY cushy job.

[wanderingback]

I don't know anything about start ups, but is the main reason you're considering it is because you'd have a higher title?

[goldengirlz]

Aug 18, 2020 12:28:22 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

I don't know anything about start ups, but is the main reason you're considering it is because you'd have a higher title?

I guess you could say that. It’s not just a higher title — as in moving a step or two up the ladder — but the chance to actually start a new department for this company. I would be the lead [my job] at this company and the whole department (that I’d get to hire) would report to me. It would be a tremendous career boost, and the one reason I’d walk away from my current job.

The other draw is perhaps the Silicon Valley pipe dream of joining a hot startup in the year before an IPO and walking away a millionaire. Lol. Something like that.

[k3am]

goldengirlz, how much information do you have on the company and investors? What tier are the investors? How many investors? How many rounds have they gone through? How much is a "boatload?" How unprofitable are they?

The company that you've described is my bread and butter client. Almost none of my clients make money. Almost all of them have professional investment (ranging from angel investors to more well known institutional investors). A large percentage of them are planning or have planned an IPO.

The IPO market is not hot right now. And it takes a TON of money and resources to IPO and remain public. For most of the companies I finance, the notion of going IPO is just a pipe dream that gets in their own way and wastes a ton of resources.

My current company doesn't have the same resources for digging into investors as my prior did, but you can DM if you want me to take a basic/cursory look at the company and/or lead investors I can at least tell you if I'd even consider lending against them. At minimum, I could probably tell you if they're paying or stretching their vendors.

[wanderingback]

Aug 18, 2020 12:42:50 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

Aug 18, 2020 12:28:22 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

I don't know anything about start ups, but is the main reason you're considering it is because you'd have a higher title?

I guess you could say that. It’s not just a higher title — as in moving a step or two up the ladder — but the chance to actually start a new department for this company. I would be the lead [my job] at this company and the whole department (that I’d get to hire) would report to me. It would be a tremendous career boost, and the one reason I’d walk away from my current job.

The other draw is perhaps the Silicon Valley pipe dream of joining a hot startup in the year before an IPO and walking away a millionaire. Lol. Something like that.

Again I know nothing about start ups, but I just finished job hunting and had a dilemma between 2 jobs.
One job was going to be super stable, but not much excitement.
Other job gets local, state and federal funds to stay afloat and the hiring process took longer than expected because they were waiting to find out about their funds since covid has essentially fucked up everything. So who knows what will happen year after year with funding. But it came with the perk of being hired as a leader and being a director in a few months.

I decided to take the less stable job for the perks of it being a tremendous career boost and the perks of leadership with my own team.

I figure if eventually they stop getting funding (even if it's next year) I won't have a terrible time finding a new job, especially since this job will have given me the director title, so really what are the down sides? So far 1 week in I'm already starting to make decisions and shape things and I'm loving it.

I don't think I'm confusing you with someone else, but I think your H has a stable job also, so that's another consideration to taking risk (my partner's career is the exact opposite of stable right now haha, but I still went for it).

And if anything, you could interview and see how it goes and change your mind.  

[Accountingcat]

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