There are a lot of articles giving you insights on why you should work for a startup and how it will shape your future etc. Most of these are about the startup with 10+ people on board (including founders). I know, 10 is just a number, but it shows that the founders are convinced about what they are doing. Which means the team is matured, the idea is matured, people know (sort of !) their plan.
What happens when there are less than 10 people or startup is in early stage?
Time
It is well known that you will never get free time in a startup. But if there are less than 10 people, then it becomes even more fun(?).
You are involved in almost all the decision making, which means more meetings, discussions, heated debates. So you end up changing directions (in a small way) every single day. So your one hour spent on a problem is probably going to change in next five hours. You need to rush all the time.
Think again, if you can’t manage time!
Responsibility
Most people love startups because of freedom. Wednesday afternoon off, Sleeping in office hours, Playing games, Off the topic random discussions, side projects that your team appreciate. You will have complete freedom in work, to bring your ideas to the table. All of this is true.
But it comes with some responsibilities, which means it’s not about `coming up with ideas`. It is about thinking and executing anything and everything related to the idea. If one of the feature you implemented breaks during your weekend trip, be ready to jump back to work.
Think again, if you are the person who thinks someone in the team will implement your idea!
(Un)Learn
Startup attracts youth because of the speed you can learn new things. True, but it is really about unlearning. Every tool you use breaks, and breaks in bad ways. Do not carry forward your learnings based on assumption. If you are facing a problem, be ready to unlearn and start from scratch. Especially for Engineers, all the fancy tech stack that you will learn are not that simple when people are using your product. Every single user added, every single database entry, every server you setup will throw your previous learning to garbage.
Be Happy and do what you Love
Yes. This is the most important thing you have to keep in mind. If you are not enjoying this journey then do not waste yours’ or teams’ time. Do not work for the sake of working. Do it if you think you cannot do anything better than that every day.
