/biz/ - Business & Finance

Worked in a startup back in the early dot-com days. It was pretty well funded, and I think we had about 20-25 people. It wasn't a good experience - I needed the job and experience to grow my career, and the pay was ok, but I always knew it would fail.

That, to me, is the toughest part. Being fairly certain that all of your work is going to be for nothing.

The second-toughest part was getting the feeling that the company would find a way to cut you out of most/all of the upside if the company actually did get to something.

I wouldn't recommend it,

>>426509

So as far as questions to ask, I have the basic stuff but a lot of stuff centered around equity in the company.

I've met with the owners of the existing company multiple times at various industry events and they're definitely not the type to intentionally screw me over. However, that doesn't mean they won't.

I'll be sure to try to have something written into my contract about how much equity I have. I'm mainly worried about agreeing to something like "you get 15,000 shares" and then it turns out they have 100,000,000 and the founders own 999,000,000 of them.

>>426511

Well, it sounds like you are going in with your eyes open. And, yes, never assume that "they're nice guys". To them, if they can get out of giving you something, they will. e.g. share dilution, cancelling your employment days before you receive your first shares, etc. I've heard a lot of stories like this.

I'm not an expert on how shares work, though, or what to look for in contracts, how to negotiate better deals, etc.

I answered a ton of startup-related questions in this thread: https://archive.foolz.us/biz/thread/378447/

>>426966

Please retype your answers, OP can't be bothered.

>>426487
>how stressful is working at a startup?
Depends on the startup and your role in it. There's no global answer here.

> I'm mainly worried about agreeing to something like "you get 15,000 shares" and then it turns out they have 100,000,000 and the founders own 999,000,000 of them.

Ask for the current total number of outstanding shares. You *must* know what percentage of the company you will own. You could also have this reflected in your contract ("You will receive 15,000 shares representing 0.25% of total outstanding shares over a vesting period of four years.").

Ask if there's liquidation preferences. This can matter at the end.

If they refuse to answer either question, walk away. This is stuff that you, as an employee, have a right to know.

>>426487
I haven't been the boss so take this with a grain of salt.

It was actually very fun to work in a startup, though the work was hard and often times harsh. The team was small but we each wanted it to succeed so it was a band of brothers kind of thing.

If you are currently at a very-well paid job I would advise against it. If you are a college kid/recent grad - go right in.

>>426487
did you read that one book by the guy who stayed at his fortune 500 company when he was offered a sweet gig with options?

no, because nothing happens to the people that are scared of risk. they will never be interesting enough to read about.

do you want to be pushing excel workbooks back and forth all day, or do you want to be on the ground level of something that could be big?

I've been doing three internships at startups.

One of them lasted one week and was the worst shit I ever did. They just put interns there to do the shit work, including shit pay and nothing to learn. Their idea was also pretty bad and it was something from a serial entrepreneur, meaning it lacked any spirit. Don't know if you heard about "Rocket Internet" (it's behind Zalando, Jamba... mostly European stuff), but the boss came from them, so I would get informed before joining there.

The other one was meh. I had little to do most of the time, everything was kinda unstructured and it will probably not become big. It was more of a small company instead of a startup.

The third one was great and lots of fun, though long and stressful working hours. You will love it if you like to work though.

tl;dr: expect bad pay, everything else depends on your boss. Some people don't get when their idea/style sucks, some others realize they are just as any other employee in the startup. A good rule of thumb is the overall hierarchy in the startup.

Currently interning at a relatively small startup (~350 people). I love it, almost everything is transparent and everyone is smart and has no ego. The work is hard, but its an awesome feeling building something for people and having your voice heard.

>>427160
And...
the pay?
;^)

What's your position there?

>>427160
350 people isn't considered small in the startup world. I've worked at four startups and the biggest one was 45 people. Three of them were under 20 people. My current company where I am CTO is nine people.

You're right about people being smart. It's really hard to last long at a small company if you're ineffective. Egos typically tend not to survive too long either. I've passed on hiring qualified applicants because I felt they would bring disharmony to my team's work culture.

>>427169
Making $30 an hour as a QA intern. Had a couple of software engineering offers too, but this was easily the company I was most excited about.
>>427190
Yeah, it feels like it's in that awkward stage between startup and normal sized company. They're expanding pretty rapidly, though, and should IPO relatively soon.

>>427230
Square? Box? Only two companies around that size I know of which could potentially IPO...

>>427611
Neither, although I'm planning on knocking on every door I can find to try to get an internship at Square next summer. Jack Dorsey seems pretty awesome.

>>426487
The fact that you doubt yourself and you're having second thoughts about it already shows that you need to work on your confidence.

Forget the stress that will be involved, it's more or less a series of challenges and working with people on a more personal level.

>>427935
DOUBTS CAN BE HAD, AS LONG AS THE FAITH PREVAILS!

Carry on, Imperial citizen. Don't forget to sign up for the Imperial Guard.

Emperor protects.

People who work in startups, how is the startup scene in Colorado (Boulder specifically)? And how viable is it to dropout of school with good skills in Ruby, Rails, iOS, and everything there is to know about Swift so far?

I'm not legitimately thinking about doing this, but a friend just told me that I could do that if I want to.. I'm naturally skeptical and really like my classes (excluding gen eds) but if anything strange were to happen, I'd like to know how realistic that possibility would be. I'm thinking Boulder because I've heard of many startups there and it seems more appealing with the lower cost of living, and the large college there to attract potential interns and stuff.