Anyone here ever join a startup?

[midnight armadillo]

Hmm...I have an offer on the table. Not literally written down or completely hammered out yet, but an offer exists. Offer: more money, much shorter commute, possibly big return at an IPO, interesting work with great people, I'd be mostly working remotely, but it would be something of a career change. Current: conservative, stable job without much professional growth, lots of friends. Very stable, actually. Once series A funding is landed a proper offer will be proffered.

Decisions, decisions. Anyone in the Lounge ever try something like this? How'd it go?

[TreasonousBastard]

1. I did. Went broke-- like most startups do. But, if they...

look like they have a good product, business plan, marketing... and they seem to be focused, give it a shot. It could be one to take off.

(A lot, maybe most, of the failures are because the founders care more about their dream than the nuts and bolts of their busines)

[Yavin4]

5. "the founders care more about their dream than the nuts and bolts of their business"

Amen to that. I worked for a start up last year which has operations in India. The founder was a friend of mine, and he was more interested in re-connecting with India than he was actually running the business.

[sakabatou]

2. I own a start-up

P4 Productions.

[Lars39]

3. Be very aggressive about socking money away for that rainy day...

Paydays aren't always predictable, especially in this economy.

[Yavin4]

4. I Did.

Get everything in writing and get your money up front.

Last year, I worked for a start up, and I didn't have a contract nor even a salary, just a promise that I would be taken care of eventually. Well, as time went on, the communication got less and less. I got out before anything really bad happened.

My advice to you is that start ups are extremely risky. You could do very well or you could lose a lot. Look at your own financial circumstances and ask yourself, "what if everything goes belly up. what would I do then?"

[Capn Sunshine]

6. That's all I do

LPs , almost all of them startups. Some live, others don't.
Some die a tremendously painful and explosive conflagration of a death others, die with a whisper.
But the ride is always unique and fun, in a hindsight kind of way.

[NNadir]

7. Um...um...um...

What I could tell you about start ups!?!?!

The upsides are that you get do wear a lot of hats, do a lot of things, understand that you would never get to understand in a tight corporate environment.

Here are some downsides: You have to be a true believer in the hype of the technology. That's not so bad if the hype is accurate, but it is difficult of the hype is discovered, in the course of your employment to be exaggerated, or worse, pure bull.

Do a careful probabilistic analysis of what is likely, what you want to believe, and what you already question.

Do market reasearch - whether the company has given you some or not - independently. Stock options are worthless if the tech is worthless, in the end, although there is a period in which it only matters if investors believe the hype and not whether the hype is valid.

Understand something about the financing of the company. What is the capital position, the likely burn rate, and the history of key technical and management staff.

Ask yourself if you like your boss and if you don't, whether you can tolerate him or her because of his or her's genius.

Also ask yourself if you want to work long hours under conditions of inevitable doubt.

Right now, having been through this for good and for bad, I'm kind of laughing my ass off about some of those smug supercilious corporate types I have known over the years to be honest with something like Schadenfreud as their rugs get pulled from under them. (On the other hand, I weep for my country that many fine scientists are being chucked out by dumb MBA's who don't give a rat's ass about the future.) Many of the corporate smug types I know are incapable of thinking on their feet, incapable of doing new things, incapable of having a broad perspective on what is and is not of real value. I feel like I can do anything, know anything and understand anything. A lot of stultified types can't do that.

My sig line however would be different without my start up experience. Take that for what it's worth.

Know that there is good money chasing after bad ideas and no money available for many good ideas. As a class, inverstors are often dumb as stumps, which accounts for how Amory Lovins was able to fleece so many of them with the hydrogen HYPErcar and other dumb wishful thinking stuff.

I'm with a start up now. I'm not home with my family. I'm 3000 km away, out in CA, driving all over LA trying to be charming to people I barely know. I've slept maybe 15 to 20 hours in the last 5 days if I'm lucky.

I had to discuss totally unrelated technologies with experts in several areas and not sound stupid. (I believe I managed it, but hey, you never really know...)

I'd give anything just to touch my wife's hand tonight, just to get silly for a few minutes with my boys.

But I'm up at dawn for meetings, more meeting and meetings after that, and probably, after blowing off a tiny bit of steam here, need to cram a few hours if I wake up at 3 a.m.

But it's a life and anything really worth doing involves a level of risk...