How to evaluate whether a start up is a good fit as a emoloyer? what questions to ask during the interview
Some of my friends are burnt before (left cushy career, joined start up with horrible culture, inflated egos, and financial issues), and want to ensure that I dont make the same mistake. I am trying yo understand from others experience, since some level of chaos and “unique” personalites are expected at the start ups. How do you evaluate whether a start up is a good fit as a emoloyer? 1. What questions to ask during the interview to uderstand economic viability of company & work culture? 2. Are unsubstantiated inflated egos common in start ups. How to predict this type of problems during the interview?
- on the economic side, ask them how is their burn rate? How long they can survive with already funded without going for next round. Ask them what’s the exit strategy and how soon they anticipate - on the ego part, it’s tough to evaluate in couple of hours onsite interview. I would say, during the interview you can ask some behavior questions and don’t try to act like a great soul. Just behave the way you are and see if it’s perfect match. You are going to date with small set of people for next 3-4 years so treat it like dating.
How are you funded? Strategic investors are better than pure venture, since strat investors want to see the company succeed. Also, debt could be a bad sign—ran out of cash and couldn't raise enough to keep going. How much runway do you have? How would you characterize your burn rate? They better have at least a year. And you want a company who's watching their burn rate and has it under control. My employer's was too high for too long. Now we're on Series E + debt and my shares are garbage. How do you select your leadership? Do you offer them management training? A good company knows what good leadership looks like and actively pursues it. A company that holds talent or fame over good leadership qualities is one that likely is rampant with egomaniacs. How do you evaluate your leadership? No system or a system that focuses only on profit/rev measures is a sure sign of trouble. Good luck!
Thank you folks. This is very helpful. How do you deal with deliberate misinformation from One of the thing I have noticed is, high level senior leadership level @ some start ups? I have heard outright lies regarding burn rate, number of customers, revenue etc. May be it comes with the territory (software start ups, vc funded), or may be I & my close friends ran into a particular niche of pre-revenue start up where technology is not quite there yet across that sub-industry. So lies are more common. Do you expect outright double speak or lies during the interview process from senior leaders or I/my friends had unusual experience?
Lies are a bad sign. If you end up at a startup and you want to know the truth about its performance, form a relationship with the people closest to the numbers: Salesforce admin, account managers, or FP&A. They'll be able to tell you what's real and what isn't.
Ask them to demo the product at the interview. Ask them to meet qa. If they don't have testers they very likely don't have a product to test. Do you see yourself buying or using the product? Do you see anyone buying or using the product. Is there an open source version? If there is are they really a consultancy masquerading as a startup
Go with your gut feeling during the interviews. Its the best way to tell.