Getting your startup team’s expectations right
What everyone needs to know before working at a startup
Working at a startup, making your dreams come true, building something from scratch, living the startup life… it’s amazing. But beware, it doesn’t come with a manual and it certainly is different from what you learned at college.
It’s a rollercoaster
This is the number one thing I believe you guys need to know. Every day things will change. Your product, your mood, your metrics, your customers, your product’s features, your marketing, your approach, your everything. It might be that these changes are occurring daily and they will be substantial.
And that’s not enough: You will pivot.
pivot (n.): the act of changing your hypotheses on which your future business model is based
Pivots aren’t bad. They feel like failure, but in a good way. Most folks outside the startup ecosystem still haven’t got the memo yet. This includes entrenched industry professionals, academics and politics. Failure is still purely bad for the majority of people. But that is a topic for another time. So in essence, every part of your team needs to know that they can’t rely on the fact that tomorrow is going to be exactly like today. Because it’s not.
Let’s be real…there’s no pay
Don’t lure people to work for you with money they’ll never get. I’ve been there myself and for me, it was never about making money. It was actually a little less than a year ago when I wanted to get more into the startup scene and get some experience in a startup that’s not my own. The founder of the startup promised me that I was going to get paid after a month of testing whether I would fit with the team. So a month passed, but nothing happened. Talking to the founder after 4 weeks got me the following answer: “Why, Julia, you need to be intrinsically motivated! We don’t want people working here just for money, but because they like working for the vision.” See the problem is this: It wasn’t about the money here, but about the honesty. Don’t lie to your employees and make promises you can’t keep. It breaks trust — and it broke my committment.
So check your savings (but don’t sell your Bitcoins☺) and calculate how many months you can survive without income. That’s the time you will be able to commit.
Flexibility and stability are key
No two days are the same. Everyone’s in a different mood today from yesterday. Also, your daily hours will differ. One time you’ll get up early, other times you won’t start working until after lunch but sit through till midnight. Sometimes you’ll have meetings with external people. Sometimes you’ll work together, other times it’s Saturday and you’re lying in bed with your laptop and working alone. If you aren’t flexible enough to cope witht that, better yet: if you don’t LOVE this way of living and working, startup life is not for you.
If you don’t LOVE this way of living and working, startup life is not for you.
Motivation and passion need to be part of your thinking…
…and this will turn into your company culture.
Nobody is going to motivate you more than the startup itself. So rule number 1: chose a startup you love with a product you love (or in case you don’t have a product yet, a team and idea you love). You need to know why you’re getting out of bed each morning. Don’t have personal goals that go with your startup, but have a startup that goes with your personal goals.
Don’t forget, your culture will ultimately attract more people of the kind in later stages of the startup. If you don’t like the culture now, you won’t like it later and you certainly won’t “grow into it”.
These things can be learned, and it’s quite possible that we’ll make some mistakes along the way. But hell, we’re changing the world and we know we’re making a difference. So: never stop founding, you guys!
#neverstopfounding
Anything to add? I’d be happy to read your feedback in comments ☺
Thx to Andreas Mahringer for editing.
