Why NOT to Join an Early Stage Startup: A Reality Check
Every month, I interview candidates who romanticize startup life, imagining ping-pong tables and unlimited coffee. Most quit within 3-6 months. As someone who’s been through both early-stage startups and scale-ups like Uber, let me be clear: if you worked at a company with hundreds of employees and HR person, even if it felt to you like a startup, you haven’t experienced a real startup.
Here’s why you should think twice before joining one:
- Extreme Work Expectations
- Regular weekend work required
- Tasks outside your role common
- No clear work-life boundaries
- Mental Demands
- Must be deeply passionate about your work
- Strong mission alignment required
- High tolerance for ambiguity and chaos
- Zero Structure
- No defined processes or frameworks
- Minimal career progression talks
- Constant adaptation required
- Self-Management Critical
- Must maintain strict personal discipline
- Responsible for own growth
- Balance health and performance independently
- Resource Constraints
- Limited budgets
- Need for scrappy solutions
- Quick, independent decision-making required
- Growth Pressure
- Daily improvement expected
- Multiple role reinventions needed
- Long periods without visible results
If you’ve read this far and still want to join a startup, you might be the right person for it. The most successful startup employees I’ve known weren’t attracted by the glamour—they were drawn to the challenge. They understood these harsh realities and chose to dive in anyway.
The rewards, however, can be extraordinary for those who thrive in this environment:
- Accelerated professional growth
- Outsized impact on product and company
- Potential generational financial upside
- Unmatched autonomy and ownership
- Skills that last a lifetime
- Network of ambitious innovators and entrepreneurs
Just remember: it’s perfectly okay to prefer the stability and structure of established companies. Better to know this now than three months into a startup role.