> Mimi : As a first employee, for better or worse, the thing about joining a startup is that it’s not a meritocracy, right? If you’re disappointed in a decision

> Mimi : As a first employee, for better or worse, the thing about joining a startup is that it’s not a meritocracy, right? If you’re disappointed in a decision that’s made, or if you feel the founders aren’t leading the way that you would lead an organization, it can be incredibly frustrating. It’s actually tricky to be a first employee because you identify both with the founders and the employees. Best line in this series so far. If you are going to be an early employee, make sure you are compensated for this. Even if the structure is "flat" between founders and employees at some point in time, it can always change, and the founders always win. There is nothing wrong with this, it is their company after all. But this is a huge point of frustration for early employees (something I've experienced and seen experienced by many others), and make sure you price this inevitable frustration in when deciding if you want to take an offer to be an early employee at a startup. If you are an early employee and want to get something big done you'll have to convince the founders, but if the founders want to do something big they don't have to convince you.