I’m a new grad SWE in my early 20s at Google. I went to college here but grew up in India. My dad is a first-generation entrereneur in India. While I was growing up and even when I started college here, I always thought I was going to join the family business. Part of it was because I’ve always looked up to my dad (top rank holder from a top IIT and generally pretty well-known/influential in the state) and have been excited by the thought of working together with him. While the business has been of a relatively moderate size for a long time, it has diversified significantly in the last 2-3 years and now has an annual revenue of over $20 million with decent profits of ~$3 million. YoY revenue growth is roughly 30%. It’s quite impressive for a 1-man show for someone who didn’t receive any support from family in quite a backward part of India. My dad still keeps asking me to join and help him grow the business. Yet, here I am working at Google. I’m sure there are quite a few people out here in the same boat as me. Should I go back? A part of me is apprehensive because I may not not be as smart and let him down. I have also grown to like living in the US and worry I might have trouble adjusting to life in India. My partner (non-Indian) who I’ve been with 5+ years encourages me to go back and says she’d move with me but I worry she may find it even harder to adjust. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and apologies for the long post. TC: 260k first year
Although it’s an engineering company, it has nothing to do with software. I wonder if the experience I gain here would be useful at all if I wanted to go back.
Sell that business for 50M.
I can’t imagine my dad would ever want to retire. He’s in his 50s and is working harder than ever.
First off: great question. More real than most crap on blind. Honestly, there's nothing more important than family. It's a unique opportunity to grow your business with your dad, one that not everybody has and might pass eventually. However, if you feel like you still need to prove yourself before you go back then seek the right challenge for it. Whether that's doing something meaningful at Google of having some more direct impact at an early stage startup. Your dad's company is basically a safety net for you that you.can turn to it any point, so you can be a bit less risk averse than most of us here.
Thanks! That’s a great suggestion. How small of a startup would you consider?
Anything, really. Depends more on how much you believe it's going to succeed and how much value you can create. A real startup is definitely going to be a more useful experience for your father's business than a more narrow role at a large organization like Google
I totally agree with sap guy. You have got nice backup support without any liabilities. You can anytime go back to your family business. Take risk. Do whatever you feel like you want to do. Be it starting something on your own or working at google. Great post BTW.
It’s a nice problem to have, lucky you
Hey , go back
Same boat here. Did you go back OP?
20s are for not for money IMO, fund amazing managers and teams. Your family business will be around in your 30s,when it's time to make real money
Totally agree with you. But it seems like it’s hard to attract top talent to such small businesses. Most end up in multinational companies.