When you think of startups, what first comes to mind?
The ping pong table, 10 am start times or enticing salaries?
Youâre getter warmer. All of these are common traits youâll find in a typical small organization that is on the brink of launching most likely in Menlo Park or Silicon Valley California where talent is higher than $4k rent per month.
What we hear in the news is only the success stories of companies successfully completing their last round of funding for a gallizion dollars to secure their coveted position of filing for an IPO. The most recent IPOs range from DoorDash, Palantir, Airbnb to Bumble in the next coming months and now there is mixed hope for Robinhood as it has ruined its own reputation through halting trading and pampering the hedge funds that back them. Literally, without them, they would be non-existent and Vlad might be back in Bulgaria.
Who knows!
All together, we only hear the success stories, seldom any failures that arise in this competitive and deadly landscape of entrepreneurialism. This is purely because Silicon Valley wants to keep its prized image alive and secondly, why intimidate potential talent?
The engineers need all the talent they could get to grow the company further. After Jake and Jill do their duties as co-founders, there needs to be more skin in the game who can offer fresh perspective and actually drive their startup to the other side of the world in New York to launch as a hopeful public company.
Entrepreneurship Certainly Isnât For Everyone
Great, you want to quit your job and start working for yourself. Thereâs no such thing as getting sick of yourself because thatâs the best person to work for right?
Well, old on partner. Itâs not so much smooth sailing, especially when you need to grind and hustle for no guaranteed reward. Yes, you have total control but that also means that you are limitless with no boundaries which can be a worse thing than you think.
If you are a workaholic like I am, without my friends or family telling me to stop working past my bed time time or come eat dinner, I would be working nonstop sleeping on the floor as Musk does to pamper his employees.
Some people like that energy, others donât.
We glamorize entrepreneurship as if itâs the best path to become successful. Who says you canât make money working for someone?
You can easily become a millionaire, have a boss and have several other side hustles as my family does.
It really comes down to spending and saving in order to accumulate wealth.
Sure, itâs a great way to earn million or billions, or why not reach for trillions as Bezos and Musk are on that track but after $75k, happiness plateaus. Buffet still lives in his Omaha home from the 1970âs which he bought for 80k or some crazy amount like that.
Live the stealth wealth life.
Schedulentrepreneur
As your own boss, you set your own schedule, goals, product, people, you name it, itâs all in your hands which can be scary to some.
But as with everything, there are also massive downsides which include:
-No steady income
-Lots of upfront work, effort time for no guaranteed result
-Lots of rollercoaster emotions, one day you will dream of making it and rhe next you know it will fail
-Trying to budget accordingly and being strategic about it. Recommeding not to put your life savings into a product unless it is guaranteed by the Sharks it will succeed and most importantly, you
-97% failure rate, thatâs encouraging!
-Too much flexibility
-No team bonding
-Customers are your boss
Some people are just not made to be entrepreneurs and love working in a cubicle all day ruled by a manager. JK. Not all jobs are like this, itâs really what you make out of it. 9â5 jobs, blue-collar jobs, manufacturing, delivery dude jobs all of them must exist so the world can run. We need you to fill those spots and not everyone can become an entrepreneur for capital purposes and from an economical standpoint.
The worst hting you can do is compare yourself to someone else because that will only impede you from achieving what you want. Weighing your options objectively and seeing what your family thinks just as an opinion not for the final decision, will help you gauge what environment, culture and lifestyle is best for you.
As a student, I take my time seriously. I will pay you a lot to waste my time because I know it is the most precious asset I have and I cannot buy it back. Entrepreneurs think this way. Iâve never been good at tests and school core curriculum disgusts me so I choose to learn on my own outside of school but after selling my first baby (startup) a few weeks back, I need to take a breather if it is something I can do full-time. Most likely, as a security blanket and for a peace of mind, I will have a wonderful job with a boss I like, with a team Iâm friendly with and with tasks I enjoy performing along with earning supplemental income on the side.
And thereâs absolutely nothing wrong with anything you choose!
Whether you are a married 40 year old adult with a full time job or a student like me who enjoys testing out the entrepreneurial route before I graduate, the safest route to take is to let it start as a side hustle that way if your business flops, you always have something to fall on. This is exactly what one of our renters did during Covid that was the worst mistake one could make. And just as a reference, rich people can make mistakes too. He made roughly $700k per year from his prior job.
Long story short, he started a startup and quit his job in February of 2020, a month before the pandemic hit. Obviously he didnât know the virus would spread a month later and all business industries would be altered, but still, taking a risk like that as a 40 year old divorced man with 2 kids is a stupid move. Only a month into Covid, he had no insurance, thankfully we did as owners so he paid his last month with barely any cash to spare and was gone alas.
Plan for the worst, hope for the best.
Cash is king.
Namaste.
Startup Culture and Attitude
Iâm going to try to make this as unbiased as possible even though Iâve worked and currently working at a startup.
Compared to the corporate business cut throat world, startups are great. They offer a variety of services and opportunities that you cannot find elsewhere because they are small in size.
If you are in the job search or debating on transferring or relocating, all I will say before we begin is that the title or size of the company shouldnât matter to you as much as reputation.
Reputation is everything and as weâve seen in the past few weeks with Robinhood after theyâve halted trading and gotten into some muddy waters as their âdemocratizing finance for all and clients in their best interestâ slogan flipped on its head, it led to a massive sell-off for meme stocks and users on their site. They lost their competitive edge.
Robinhood halted trading due to a liquidity crisis needing to raise more funding than they ever have before more in a night than their 7 year history by hedge funds such as Citadel to keep them afloat. This is a company with a reputation thatâs been tarnished and non-reputable due to halting trades, selling user behavior, caring about the big guys instead of retail clients and focusing on themselves instead of the markets which is the best example I can think of on why reputation is everything.
It will make or break business and now all Robinhood employees will get the side eye if they decide to apply to a different firm down the road.
Hypothetical
When Amazon started back in the dot-com era, it was only a small online bookstore. You could have chosen to work for reputable big box retailers such as Barnes and Nobles or Scholastic million dollar companies instead that didnât take the risky move to transition online but those who took the calculated risk to join small on the brink of bankruptcy Amazon, won big big BIG.
Andy Jassy whoâs been with Jeff Bezos since the 90âs in Amazon services, transitioned to CEO of Amazon Web Services and now Amazonâs incoming CEO later this year, took him almost 30 years to take home that position.
Patience, keeping reputation and not paying attention to the title is key.
If you believe the company has a mission, future and you would use their service/product, then go for it. If not, donât take your shot because otherwise, you will not loose more elsewhere than at a startup.
How big? Letâs find out.
Pros and Cons Of AÂ Startup
When it comes to the environment and culture, startups are known to have a more friendly environment as there tends to be fewer on the team so you get to know your colleagues better spending really all day with them since startups really donât sleep, especially after the high on all the Red Bull which consist of their main meals. They have to keep up with all the innovative Silicon Valley tech wizardry thatâs happening all around them.
When it comes to compensation, this is the scary part. Depending on the stage of the startup, if you are a co-founder, once the company becomes profitable, and be patient, it takes roughly a decade to do that, you will split it between the CEO and employees. When you go public or gets acquired by someone else, you break up your shared equity with the acquirer but you also have to decide as founders how much you want to give your employees, which spreads quick.
Now this is a different ball game for every company because depending on how much the CEO values you, it is completely up to them on how much they see you worth. They will usually give you the least amount required, even if you built the company from the ground up because well, the founders want the most since they came up with the idea after all.
If you want a steady job and prefer less volatility, especially when it comes to market or the acquiring process which isnât your decision unless you rise to the ranks quick at the firm, expect minimum wage or an interns salary at most. Dependent on the industry, it could vary. If itâs a manufacturing industrial heavy company that has a lot of upfront capital costs such as the aerospace industry to supply expensive jet fuel, planes, 3rd party equipment, etc., expect no compensation for the next couple of years possibly.
When it comes to support, I would say its like your second family. The training wonât be as intensive and structured compared to at a bulge bracket Fortune 500 firm. Youâll most likely be working more hours with less interns and feel like an employee with a lot of tasks that have real meaning to drive the company forward which also means a lot of confusion, meetings and no structure.
Big Boy Firm
Well, since I wrote everything that a startup offers, shouldnât big name firms offer the exact opposite?
Well since comparing companies is like comparing people to people, every company is designed in its own way. From the location to the internship program format, depending on the company, it will all vary.
Yet, what is conventional and most common is that the more prestigne the company, the more structure, less attention, longer hours, more stress, less life and harsher culture you will get. Itâs normal because 100 thousand people at a firm canât all possibly get to know each other at once through social hour and group âbreak the icesâ and as an employee, you are just one out of a thousand in one of several of your firmâs locations as well.
Although larger firms offer greater pay, even if its a reputable non-profit such as American Red Cross, it most likely wonât differ from a startup since how they earn money is through grants and funds but regardless, if you are working in expensive cities such as San Francisco, London or New York, your salary will be 2â3x higher than the national average because you have to provide for yourself paying for more expensive things in cities that donât offer alternative rates so it all evens out where you just have enough!
Wanting to work at a firm with a nice logo or brand name whom you love their products such as Apple or Spotify are usually first picks for gullible students. Although those companies may be great as expected, donât be fooled or go against small reputable firms that arenât featured in a Super Bowl commercial or products you use on a daily basis, but offer as great, even better opportunities you could ever imagine plus they are easier to get into. You never know until you try! Judging a book by itâs cover just cannot work.
Last tip, if you are really stuck, remember that rejection = redirection. If you donât get into your prized firm, whether its a startup to a big name bank remember that to profit off of a company, you can always invest in them and let those employees pay you back! Thatâs a real bargain instead of working there anyway!
There will always be a company for you. Stay positive, weigh the options and most importantly, know what you value and need.
Happy workin.