Is Working with Startups Addictive?
Before work grind, I had planned my retirement. It went something like this — Investing in a few startups, few years down — selling my stake to some corporate (that was too rigid to innovate, perhaps), and sleep on cash beds.
So I decided to work with a Venture Capital firm. Pretty sorted right? Nope!
While pursuing the ‘cliched’ MBA, and going through a bunch of VC profiles on Linkedin I realized — it isn’t going to be as easy as planning the imaginary ‘retirement’.
Set out to gather some experience (which I planned to show off to the HR at VC firms) and I started working with startups. Before finishing college ended up working with 7 startups — Okay, enough with the bragging!
Anyway, in my last semester, I ended up interning with Quicko — instead of a VC (unlike I planned) only to continue there full time.
I have thoroughly enjoyed myself working with startups. From interning to working full time — Maybe I want my career in and around startups.
Nothing beats the adrenaline of working at a startup.
Why is working with startups addictive?
Massive Learning Curve
I’ll take the liberty to say — I got my degree from college, but the learnings came from all the internships.
Now, don’t get me wrong here, there are a lot of things I learned during college. But it’s a whole different degree of learning at a humble company — with a small team, limited resources, and massive contagious energy flow.
Let’s paint a scenario — you just came across a new approach to market your product, you shared with your team and they think its worth a shot. The task requires you to use certain tools for the 1st time (and you can’t bug others a lot — since their task plate is already full). So you do a lot of ‘Google-ing’, watch tutorial videos, ask around and Voila! You are skilled enough to manage to pull off the task you set out for. This setting is quite ordinary.
That's how I ended up from asking — What the heck is a server? — to publishing sitemaps, pushing redirects into prod and suggesting SEO changes on to the website in just a year.
In startups, usually tools, structures, and processes have to be built along the way. Almost everyone is doing things for the first time. The learning curve progress is fulfilling.
Working for a startup is parallel to professional hyper-growth!
Exciting and Diverse responsibilities
What skill do start-ups love the most? The answer not surprisingly is — Multitasking.
Employees at startups usually understand that the job will require them to work outside their typical scope of expertise.
I have worked with Chartered Accountants who ideate and help design products, go bug-hunting, write content, and get orders (and pretty sure I am missing out on something)
Startup teams have a clear understanding of these extra responsibilities that are tied to successfully achieving the goals.
It can be overwhelming at times, having to jump from one task to the other, and end up feeling unproductive and exhausted— because you did multiple tasks partially.
I often felt scattered over fifty different tasks (still do sometimes). But, here is how I tried to manage multiple tasks — aka my cheatsheet to multitask efficiently:
- Prioritize: There are a zillion things that should be done, but only a couple of them need your attention right now. Make a list of all the tasks that you have got on your hand and highlight those that are extremely urgent, and now, get on to it. It's no rocket science, I often overlooked it.
- Organize your day: Prepare a to-do list for the day ahead of you and set a timeline for yourself. Probably go a step further and break down the tasks into more detailed steps. You can use tools like Trello — which help monetize this process.
- Time-box: It is easy to get distracted when multitasking, so it is important to define timelines for tasks in hand. Decide what you need to do by some-o-clock.
- Set realistic expectations: The idealistic results may seem a little far-fetched when multitasking. Therefore set realistic expectations — with what best you achieved given the limited resources. After all, we are only humans!
It is not uncommon in startups to be divided between tasks. Some days are PR-focused, while others are spent learning and setting up paid search campaigns or helping out tech-teams on product testing or interviewing interns.
Organized multitasking is the way to go!
Being heard and getting recognized
Teams at startups are closely-knit, everyone has a say in the business functioning.
Random discussions take shape into brainstorming sessions. And any premature random idea gets transformed into well-sort out plans. Everyone has a chance to speak up and be respectfully heard, in these collaborative discussions.
There may be (rather — always are) disagreements in these talks. In the end, you either convince others with your viewpoint or end up understanding and appreciating the other rationale. Both are equally valuable.
However, you must be careful as to how you voice out your thoughts. Respectfully and rationally voice out your notion and not loudly.
Out of my small-handful experience, humble organizations have proven to have a better set of ears!
The walls are compact enough to be heard so speak your mind and soul out.
Unique growth opportunities
You can trampoline your way towards growth — which is rare in multilayered corporates.
The growth at a startup is interlinked with your learning curve and the startup’s growth.
They are more adaptive to employees' personal lives and goals. Moving to a different city — try long-distance working or at best explore business opportunities there.
Here is a perfect anecdote to back it up:
I went from joining as an intern at Quicko to continuing full-time and moving to Bangalore to set up our office.
All of it in a year! And as an almost fresher — It all feels surreal!
A place for career fairytales!
I guess the arguments have been on the optimistic front. There is a flip side of the coin too… for instance, the company may dry up their funds and leave you job-hunting, or you may not earn the equivalent of your corporate colleague or have little time left for your social or personal life.
The priorities vary at a personal level and I am certainly not advocating against 9–5 working.
However, for me, the adrenaline overrides the possible cons of working at startups. Making me reconsider my imaginary planned retirement.
Should I pivot to the startup career plan?
