Why Entrepreneurs Should Get Jobs At Big Companies

This is a post from October of last year. Marcus had left his startup and is now running PR at a cool new electric car startup.

Why would an entrepreneur take a job at a large corporation? Isn’t that selling out? Giving up? Calling it quits? Hardly. This post is not advocating that entrepreneurs stop being entrepreneurs. Just because you take a job, doesn’t mean you stop being an entrepreneur. In fact, there are practical and strategic reasons why entrepreneurs benefit from being an employee.

As part of an ongoing interview series, I spoke with Marcus Nelson. Like a lot of contrarians, Marcus has bounced back and forth between employee and entrepreneur several times. Marcus understands that there are positives and negatives to both choices and switching between the two is hard. Over the course of our conversation we discussed three reasons why taking a corporate job can actually help entrepreneurs:

• Market research for your next startup
• Money
• Personal development

Market Research

To the recent college graduate, who aspires to be an entrepreneur, Marcus often recommends that an excellent first step is taking a corporate job. This will give them great work experience and exposes them to the inner workings of corporations, which is especially important for B2B startups. It’s also an excellent place to get ideas. Marcus’ last two startups (as well as the stealth one he’s currently working on) have all, directly or indirectly, come from experiences he’s had working at large corporations.

When I asked Marcus how to look for startup ideas while working a job, he said to keep a log of the questions you get asked the most. If people keep coming to you over and over again, asking for help with the same thing, then there’s probably an opportunity there.

Money

Marcus and I spoke a lot about the reality of being a serial entrepreneur, and something that people don’t often talk about: personal finances. I’ve mentioned it before but, statistically your startup will fail. While studies have shown that serial entrepreneurs increase their odds with each new startup, they’re still playing the odds. Unless an entrepreneur is astronomically lucky, eventually one of their startups will crash and burn.

If you decided to (or had to) bootstrap your startup, then it’s your money (and maybe that of friends and family) that you just lost. Mortgages, credit cards, bank loans, 401Ks, and personal savings have all been lost funding failed startups. Now what do you do? Especially if you have a family and kids, you have financial responsibilities you can’t just blow off. And now you probably have a shed load of debt. A corporate job with a salary and benefits is often times the best way to get back on your feet.

Personal Development

I’ve spoken to many entrepreneurs who have used a corporate job as a way to “take a break” from running their own startups. Running a startup is exhausting in a way you can’t even describe properly. Corporate jobs are still work, and they’re not easy, but in a big company your job has clear boundaries and paid vacation. You give up some of the freedom and thrill of running your own startup, but no one’s paycheck is dependent on you performing miracles. And at the end of the day you get to go home to your family and (mostly) unplug.

Marcus pointed out that large companies invest in leadership training and other soft skills development. This something startups usually can’t afford. He highly recommended you take advantage of these while you can.

What To Know

Taking the leap from entrepreneur, to corporate employee is no small effort. So I asked Marcus what should an entrepreneur consider before joining the dark side.

Marcus warned to be prepared for protectionism and lack of collaboration across organizations. Most employees, unlike most entrepreneurs, are wary of collaborating on new things. Entrepreneurs, turned intrepreneurs, like to connect dots and look for ways to create new opportunities. It’s one of the reasons companies like to hire entrepreneurs. But this creates extra work that other people may not appreciate. To get around this, Jason Falls recommended, in a previous interview, that finding ways to help other people meet their goals is the best way to win them over to your side.

Do your homework

Before taking a job research the company, as well as the group and the senior leaders of that group. What teams are growing? What leaders are getting assigned the cool projects? Big companies can be like high school, there are cool kids who easily get funding and others that struggle. You want to find the leaders in the company that have influence and can get their projects the funding they need. This type of mastery of corporate politics is something entrepreneurs usually lack, and finding that person who can provide air cover is important.

Develop and deliver on plans

Being an entrepreneur, you’re probably good at creating plans for new ideas, which require you to be directionally right, then figure out the details and adjust on the way. Big companies work in more stable markets with fewer surprises. They build annual plans that change very little, by comparison to startup plans, and as an employee, you’re measured against that plan. You have to deliver results.

Be patient

This goes for both employees and entrepreneurs. Doing anything impactful takes time. Our society seems to think success happens over night. Marcus commented that people often quit too soon. Success in startups or inside companies doesn’t happen overnight. You have to be willing to put in the time and earn your dues.

I still remember some of the best advice Marcus ever gave me when I was frustrated with my progress and thinking about my options. He told me to be patient and don’t force it. Whether it’s your next startup, or your next job, you need to be prepared and ready but don’t force it. Some of Marcus’ biggest mistakes came from jumping into the first thing that comes along, just because he was eager to move on.

Your life is a long winding road. Unlike previous generations, we are more likely to have multiple careers and many jobs within each of those careers. Those changes in carers and jobs are increasingly likely to lead you through companies of many different sizes. Most of you reading this have made these changes before and I’d love to hear what you think. What lessons have you learned? What did we leave out?

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Originally published at tacanderson.com.