2 ms·
One thing that's not discussed enough in the context of employees compensation (especially early ones) is prestige. Many people join startups because of the pro
by mbesto 11y ago
One thing that's not discussed enough in the context of employees compensation (especially early ones) is prestige. Many people join startups because of the promise that that company will become the next Google. They see peers who follow the same logic (Marissa Mayer, the PayPal Mafia, any PM at Google in the early 2000's, etc) and see what fame, riches and following those people gain as a result of being part of the early days of a massively successful company. This is also why YC companies categorically can attract better talent, because even if the company fails, you can still tell your next potential employer you worked at a "YC backed startup". It's almost the equivalent of a Stanford degree. So, if you're an employee of a company that is already vetted by a number (i.e. amount of funding) of well-known backer (i.e. YC), you're risk is massively reduced given the insane amount of recruiting opportunities available.
- onedev 11y agoYC-backed meaning almost nothing these days in terms of my friend group. It carries no additional prestige.
- birken 11y agoJust as a quick aside of the prestige thing. It is a lot easier to get "prestige" by being a founder of a barely successful startup than it would be to be an early employee of an extremely successful one. The whole startup ecosystem is very friendly to founders in this respect. And when it comes to recruiting, you are much better off getting a job at a large prestigious company like Google, Facebook, Amazon than you would be at a random startup. The quality of engineering at a random startup, even YC startups, is extremely low when compared to large prestigious companies. This is due to the fact that the engineering talent at startups is generally below that of employees at (Google|Facebok|Amazon|etc), and startups are incentivized to ship stuff quickly and not necessarily work on engineering quality software. If your goal is to found a startup, then maybe you are better off working at another startup to pick up a more diverse set of skills. But if your goal is to get hired as an engineer, a big prestigious company is way way better than a random startup to have on your resume.
- aantix 11y agoI'm a consultant in Silicon Valley. Rails engineer. I've done hundreds of hiring interviews and coming from a YC backed startup might get you a "cool, ever meet Paul Graham", but that's about it. You're still going to go through the same live coding exercises as every other candidate.