Tips and info on joining a start up
Hey mates, I am interviewing for new positions as a software engineer and i am interested in the small (<30) and large(<200) start ups. How do you evaluate if it is a good time to join a company? I know the team and business plan is the most important factor and are hard to make general statements about. But what about funding series (A, B , ...), amount of funding, company age, head count growth, engineering team size, famous CEO or CTO, being backed by famous investors and VCs? Which one of these do you consider as a positive and what weight do you assign to it? What other factors would you consider? Thanks
Founders that have exited before have a higher likelihood for above average outcomes, as do all star teams (VP/director or top research) for acquisitions. Be picky about vetting the team, but the market opportunity is the biggest driving factor after market fit. The team is about execution and saving you from bad outcomes, as well as finding the next opportunity. Sometimes growth is obvious (one round per year, 10x employees), but sometimes they don’t need funding and are doing great. Yes, top VCs is a good signal but they will also have 10 failures per success. Team may be the most important factor, if you assume they will still be there. The 1-in-million startups you can’t really predict and won’t always have big names. Go somewhere you believe in and will enjoy working with the team.
Honestly you should comment the startup and see if folks have opinions here about them. DM me if you want my signal.
Thanks for the insights. I am being approached by so many recruiters for various start ups and it is not easy to tell the ones that are worth pursuing.
Did you move forward?
Would be interested to hear thoughts as well