why choose a startup?
DESCRIPTION
What are the major differences between startups and established companies and why should you choose to work at one vs. the other. Rand Fishkin's presentation from CodeFellows Seattle, Jan. 16, 2013TRANSCRIPT
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Why Choose a Startup?(and tips for how to get in if you do)
Rand Fishkin | @randfish | moz.com/rand
http://bit.ly/whychooseastartup
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4 Dangerous Myths About
Startup Jobs
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#1: Startups Do Not Compress Your Wealth Horizon
http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html
“For example, one way to make a million dollars would be to work for the Post Office your whole life, and save every penny of your salary. Imagine the stress of working for the Post Office for fifty years. In a startup you compress all this stress into three or four years.”
“If a fairly good hacker is worth $80,000 a year at a big company, then a smart hacker working very hard without any corporate bullshit to slow him down should be able to do work worth about $3 million a year.”
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#1: Startups Do Not Compress Your Wealth Horizon
http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html
“For example, one way to make a million dollars would be to work for the Post Office your whole life, and save every penny of your salary. Imagine the stress of working for the Post Office for fifty years. In a startup you compress all this stress into three or four years.”
“If a fairly good hacker is worth $80,000 a year at a big company, then a smart hacker working very hard without any corporate bullshit to slow him down should be able to do work worth about $3 million a year.”
YOU’RE GONNA HAVE A BAD TIME
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#2: Startups Are Always 80+ Hour Weeks
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2007-05-19/
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#3: At Least You’ll Always Love What You Do
http://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/startup-ideas/
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#4: The Culture/Environment is Always Better
http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/8191317327/
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3 Powerful Truths About
Startup Jobs
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#1: Less Red Tape, Fewer Politics, More GSD
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#2: Your Career Can Leapfrog Intermediate Roles
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#3: The Impact of Your Efforts Will Be Far More Visible
http://themetapicture.com/if-my-thoughts-were-visible/
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Startups vs.
Established Companies
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Structured vs. Unstructured
At a startup, your tasks and responsibilities will change regularly, and progress will feel more like a scatterplot
At an established company, your work/role is likely to fit a relatively
stable pattern
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Big Team vs. Small Team
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/995-if-youre-working-in-a-big-group-youre-fighting-human-nature
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Repeatable Model vs. Discoverable Model
Startups find themselves with lots of false “eureka” moments, followed by periods of
fast change to find a repeatable model.
Established companies usually have a repeatable model for income/growth
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Risk vs. Reward
Startups are perceived to have tremendous risk, but startup
founders and high-skill-demand employees (e.g. engineers,
designers, marketers, product folks) usually don’t have a difficult time
finding new roles.
Established companies are often perceived to have less risk. This is true in some areas, e.g. benefits,
higher comp, cash balance, etc, but has some big holes, too, e.g.
obsolescence of skills, layoff risk, negative associations, etc.
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5 Tips for
Earning a Startup Job
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#1: Research the Company, Product, & Market
From the SEOmoz Facebook page and Rand’s personal blog
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CAVEAT: Be Careful About External Sources
Whole Bunches of Wrong Info
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#2: Show That You Are Metrics Driven
http://gmailmeter.com
http://followerwonk.com
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How Obsessed With Metrics? VERY!!
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#3: Be A Culture Fit BEFORE You Ever Interview
http://linkedin.com
Even if you don’t know people there, you know people who know them!
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#4: Creative Resumes & Messages WORK
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Facebook-New-Look-Concept/6504647
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#5:Turned Down? Do The Work Anyway*.
* Only do this if you’re
confident that the
culture/personality fit was
excellent. Otherwise, it
gets creepy and weird.
No one likes creepy and
weird.
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Why Choose a Startup?(and tips for how to get in if you do)
Rand Fishkin | @randfish | moz.com/rand
http://bit.ly/whychooseastartup