What a great time to join a start-up
“What goes up must come down” I’m not sure Isaac Newton was referring to Big Tech when he said that (although the Apple reference is a nice coincidence), yet those words seem to describe the current situation pretty well. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, it’s not exactly the apocalypse, and from an onboarding perspective, things seem to be ticking along fine, but it’s difficult to ignore the “changes” that have happened recently. There has been a mix of layoffs, reduced remote working and companywide pauses for onboarding. Obviously, after the boom in tech, we saw over the past few years, we’re starting to see the pendulum swing the other way. With that thought process in mind, my question is “why not try a start-up?”
What defines a start-up?
The term “start-up” is arguably the most ambiguous word you can use in tech, normally used as a blanket term that will refer to anything from a 1M series A with 6 people, all the way to a 2B valued series E, but for the sake of this, let’s go with the average.
Is joining a start-up risky?
From my experience, in times of concern, people become increasingly worried about joining small companies and certainly ones that are yet to go public, but why? Obviously, the risk is still there and it would be a lie to say anything else, but is it any different than joining one of the big boys? It’s commonplace to see these giants of tech remove sections of the business they seem unfit, or more recently, change their stance on remote working for “productivity reasons”. Things like this can still happen at a small, private company, but for it to happen there is consequence! There is a sense of loss and regret, they can’t just take losing money as collateral damage. There is a perception of risk, but is there really a big difference between the two? One of the great things about the right start-up is the runway! Although plenty of these small companies don’t have a lot, I’ve worked with businesses that could operate for 2/3 years without generating any significant revenue. In a time where outside factors and stock prices are becoming a focal point, having that removal from things out of your control is surely a positive thing!!
What should I consider if I’m joining a start-up?
Let’s not be ignorant, there are obviously a good amount of start-ups that aren’t in the perfect situation and undoubtedly it takes some faith to join them, but how many get incorrectly categorised? How many companies have you walked away from without speaking to? Or more importantly, asked the right question! From the years I’ve spent in recruitment, one of the many lessons I learned was that “people don’t avoid start-ups, they avoid the idea of start-ups”. Most people have preconceived fears of what they expect to find and avoid digging to see what is there. Here’s my advice, ask questions! Naturally, use the tools we have to give yourself an idea, but Crunchbase can only take you so far. There is likely tons of important information the company can’t make public, information that gives you context well past what you’ll find online. A common trait that I find from people in the industry is they’re naturally creative, you’re engineers, you like to build cool shit!! Why not try it somewhere you’re impactful and needed? With everything going on, give the small guys a chance, you might find it’s exactly what you’ve been looking for.
At Adapt Talent we specialize in eCommerce Recruitment, Magento Recruitment and AI Recruitment and, we have a range of vacancies ranging from start-ups to more established companies, contact us today and we can help you find your perfect role.
