WORKING FOR A STARTUP — NOT YOUR FATHER’S OLDSMOBILE ~ AND OTHER LESSONS LEARNED FROM MY EXPERIENCE IN THE TRENCHES

Not a day goes by when we don’t see articles espousing the reasons why you should join a startup or the competitive advantages that a startup offers. I’m not going to suggest that these articles are wrong or that participating in a startup may not provide you with wealth, challenges, or a sense of purpose. The reason I’m writing this blog post is to share my experiences working in several startups with the hopes that my experience can help you to lead or participate in a startup.

The good

Working for a startup is fun and challenging. Depending on the stage at which you join the startup you can find yourself (as I did) purchasing furniture and laying telephone cables or implementing new technologies and business processes. As an employee (within a startup), you often face considerable challenges in bringing your product or service to market. You often have an enormous responsibility to not only explain your new product and service but to convince customers that they should give your startup a try. I’ve often found that finding customers is easy compared with the challenge of retaining those customers. Startups do a great job finding customers, but often have difficulties in keeping them.

In my experience working for several startups, I’ve built life-long relationships with colleagues. All members of the startup participate in long hours of starting and executing a new business. Each member of a startup learns about each other’s responsibilities, and no Job is too small or too complicated to take on. In my 25 years of working, I’ve never experienced the teamwork and relationships that occur in a startup.

The bad

While I’ve enjoyed working for startups, one should be aware of their positive and negative element. These elements require evaluation before you join the startup or should be on your mind while working at the startup:
The best CEOs are Teachers

Leaders educate their company — Michael Porter once said that the best CEOs are ones that teach. A good startup should have a CEO, who is always preparing the team. He or She should explain how the company will succeed, the purpose of the business and the how all parts of the company fit together. Startups that fail (in my experience) are led by CEOs who have a vision but don’t have the ability to execute the vision.

Sudden change is not always a good idea — One common error I’ve seen in many startups is what I call a “forced” changing of the guard. Sometimes business conditions change or market forces become more difficult resulting in lower growth or revenue. A practiced and wise CEO understands that these issues should be addressed through calculated and planned changes and not through random leadership re-organizations. The success of a startup is as much dependent on its’ people as it’s products. When business and market conditions change, it is wise for the CEO to consult with the people who are driving his or her business and not to make sudden changes. Nothing hurts the culture of the startup more than disruptive changes.

Final thoughts

I hope you have found this blog post interesting. While it is not a complete analysis of the good and bad associated with a startup, it does represent some of my experiences. If you read this post, I encourage you to post your experiences or tweet them to me at @srab2001.