Comments on: If I can pick and choose any start-up to work for, I’ll pick … Part 1 http://www.GeekMBA360.com/if-i-can-pick-and-choose-any-start-up-to-work-for-ill-pick-part-1 Career Advice At The Intersection Of Business And Technology Sun, 13 Nov 2011 11:00:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 By: Ted Howard http://www.GeekMBA360.com/if-i-can-pick-and-choose-any-start-up-to-work-for-ill-pick-part-1/comment-page-1#comment-6 Ted Howard Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:16:35 +0000 http://www.GeekMBA360.com/?p=218#comment-6 I just joined a startup and struggled through many of these issues. What it came down to for me was two things: due diligence and career. I would have preferred to perform due diligence just like a VC would. However, no startup would give a potential employee the same access to their company as they would give to a VC, so the ability to evaluate a startup is limited. See how much information you can get during your interview process, but don't get rude about it. Once you have an offer, try getting a little rude and explaining why. Ask about their runway ($ in bank), revenue, future hiring plans, etc. Ask what the biggest concerns of the board and the CxO's are. As for the career portion, I find that many engineers often give only lip service to planning their careers. Take into account your own desires, your vision of your own future, and your estimate of the future of technology. Picture yourself laid-off in six months' time. What accomplishments will you list for the last six months? Will potential employers care about this work? I don't have much 'scalable services' work on my resume, I expect that to continue to be a valuable item for employers, and that influenced my decision. Career planning is not an easy thing to do, and I don't claim to do it well. Much like project planning, estimate it and then revisit it every month. On pure compensation numbers, I just saw a post on Adam Martin's blog about CxO compensation. http://t-machine.org/index.php/2008/10/02/salaries-for-startup-directors-executives/ AskTheVC has useful posts. http://www.askthevc.com/blog/archives/compensation/index.php Ted Howard I just joined a startup and struggled through many of these issues. What it came down to for me was two things: due diligence and career.

I would have preferred to perform due diligence just like a VC would. However, no startup would give a potential employee the same access to their company as they would give to a VC, so the ability to evaluate a startup is limited. See how much information you can get during your interview process, but don’t get rude about it. Once you have an offer, try getting a little rude and explaining why. Ask about their runway ($ in bank), revenue, future hiring plans, etc. Ask what the biggest concerns of the board and the CxO’s are.

As for the career portion, I find that many engineers often give only lip service to planning their careers. Take into account your own desires, your vision of your own future, and your estimate of the future of technology. Picture yourself laid-off in six months’ time. What accomplishments will you list for the last six months? Will potential employers care about this work? I don’t have much ‘scalable services’ work on my resume, I expect that to continue to be a valuable item for employers, and that influenced my decision. Career planning is not an easy thing to do, and I don’t claim to do it well. Much like project planning, estimate it and then revisit it every month.

On pure compensation numbers, I just saw a post on Adam Martin’s blog about CxO compensation.
http://t-machine.org/index.php/2008/10/02/salaries-for-startup-directors-executives/

AskTheVC has useful posts.
http://www.askthevc.com/blog/archives/compensation/index.php

Ted Howard

]]>