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My very first "real" job was working for a startup. I loved it until the day that I didn't. I worked with two really smart engineers, they showed me the ropes i

My very first "real" job was working for a startup. I loved it until the day that I didn't. I worked with two really smart engineers, they showed me the ropes in building real software. We were collaborative and they didn't just dismiss my ideas out of hand. I learned a whole lot in 6 months, lessons I still use today. But then one morning I woke up to "the news"...our largest investor had gone bankrupt and the funding evaporated over night. We still got paid a few more months but work slowed and then stopped. Then we were told we couldn't get paid anymore and we all moved on. I dont fault the startup for it but it certainly sucked. I've not worked for a startup since though sometimes it does feel like something I'd enjoy. On the flip side... Currently, I work for a fortune 5 company. I work with some of the brightest people in the world on projects that move the needle every single day. Yet, the team that I specifically work on is constantly strapped for cash. Our services are used across the enterprise, we enable the company to save millions and we do it in a scalable way. But we are told that we can't have "enterprise" funding which means that we need to scrap and claw money from the people that use our services just to keep them online. There's so much politics that it gets in the way of the work and, again since were not funded, we can't hire FTEs and usually can't even get work from an agency unless its funded from "a client." All that to say...I really, really hope that my next job has a better balance. I know that no job will ever be perfect. But I'd love to have a balance between "working with bright people who support the work that we're doing but without guaranteed funding" and "working for a soulless megacorp with infinite money that wont spend it but that offers job security."

9dev 5y ago
From the limited perspective I have, I guess you are looking for a “scale up”, that is, an established startup with steady funding that is profitable, but either too small or not-quite-there for an IPA or an acquisition to happen yet, with about 100 employees. I have worked for such a company and know others with a similar business, and it’s the best from both worlds in my opinion; you get the structure, financial freedom and delegation of a bigger company, and the flat hierarchy and freedom to do whatever the fuck you want from startups. Can recommend!
- theshadowknows 5y ago
  That sounds amazing. Honestly I like product "stuff." I'm a product guy..I want to work on building things, making them work well, adding value to our customers. And when I started here it felt like we were doing just that. We augmented the customer experience with useful tech, we built out a great platform that (so far) has been scaleable and expanded the capabilities of tons of other teams. But the past several months things have changed from a partnership to "do this because we say so and we have bigger budget than you so we'll just buy contractors to do it if you don't." And I can't thrive in that kind of an environment.
kadomony 5y ago
Sounds like tech at Walmart.
- theshadowknows 5y ago
  They're a little bit ahead of us on the Fortune list, but not far. I've heard horror stories from people who work there, too. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this life..I just want to build cool and useful stuff!
MattGaiser 5y ago
> But we are told that we can't have "enterprise" funding which means that we need to scrap and claw money from the people that use our services just to keep them online. I find how internal budgeting is done in many cases to be very strange. I run into this in my organization as well. Internal budget disputes can stop or start project work, so I can be sitting around idly (while getting paid) while they sort out the internal monopoly money they use. I get why they do it as you can't just dump unlimited resources into something, but it has all manner of side effects that it generates.
- rightbyte 5y ago
  Internal token money is a great way to mess up incentives in my experience. The most obvious offender is IT that charge silly money for computers. Utilities per head is a fixed cost even though the amount of office area, toilets or Ethernet jacks also are fixed. Etc. Resources that are underutilized are not borrowed by other departments since they have to pay for it even though the marginal cost of usage is almost zero, so they buy their own or don't bother. The end game is that the internal fairy tail costs will be used as a excuse to outsource stuff and pay real money to expensive external suppliers to save the pretend money in the department budgets ...
  - theshadowknows 5y ago
    One of the systems that my team is the owner of is our member facing communications platform - email, sms, mobile push, paper, IVR. We had a meeting a few weeks ago where we were going through budget for an internal client to onboard - we were going to vastly simplify and expand their capabilities. But when they saw the sticker price (only platform utilization, none of the resources on my team are "funded.") they blew up! "I can send email from my outlook for free!" ... "My kids send messages to each other all day and it doesn't cost a thing!!" ...so...the project died right there. It's so crazy to me.
paxys 5y ago
There is a good middle ground in the form of well funded startups (say series C and beyond) where there is still a scrappy small-company culture with a singular focus without the danger of running out of money overnight. Heck it's still probably better to join a late stage startup where a large exit is a sure thing over a megacorp.
- sgtnoodle 5y ago
  That's how I would describe working at Zipline, although I don't think anyone is looking for an exit any time soon. Folk still sweat about spending $20 on gear for projects that could save millions of dollars of NRE, not because of corporate pressure, but out of their own frugality.
phlipski 5y ago
Leave that group ASAP. Things will never get better. Your group is proving to the company that they can deliver without extra resources.
- theshadowknows 5y ago
  I'm working on it :) I had 5 interviews with a great (seeming) company last week and I'm hoping against hope to get an answer this week...

9dev 5y ago

From the limited perspective I have, I guess you are looking for a “scale up”, that is, an established startup with steady funding that is profitable, but either too small or not-quite-there for an IPA or an acquisition to happen yet, with about 100 employees. I have worked for such a company and know others with a similar business, and it’s the best from both worlds in my opinion; you get the structure, financial freedom and delegation of a bigger company, and the flat hierarchy and freedom to do whatever the fuck you want from startups. Can recommend!

theshadowknows 5y ago
That sounds amazing. Honestly I like product "stuff." I'm a product guy..I want to work on building things, making them work well, adding value to our customers. And when I started here it felt like we were doing just that. We augmented the customer experience with useful tech, we built out a great platform that (so far) has been scaleable and expanded the capabilities of tons of other teams. But the past several months things have changed from a partnership to "do this because we say so and we have bigger budget than you so we'll just buy contractors to do it if you don't." And I can't thrive in that kind of an environment.

kadomony 5y ago

Sounds like tech at Walmart.

theshadowknows 5y ago
They're a little bit ahead of us on the Fortune list, but not far. I've heard horror stories from people who work there, too. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this life..I just want to build cool and useful stuff!

MattGaiser 5y ago

> But we are told that we can't have "enterprise" funding which means that we need to scrap and claw money from the people that use our services just to keep them online. I find how internal budgeting is done in many cases to be very strange. I run into this in my organization as well. Internal budget disputes can stop or start project work, so I can be sitting around idly (while getting paid) while they sort out the internal monopoly money they use. I get why they do it as you can't just dump unlimited resources into something, but it has all manner of side effects that it generates.

rightbyte 5y ago
Internal token money is a great way to mess up incentives in my experience. The most obvious offender is IT that charge silly money for computers. Utilities per head is a fixed cost even though the amount of office area, toilets or Ethernet jacks also are fixed. Etc. Resources that are underutilized are not borrowed by other departments since they have to pay for it even though the marginal cost of usage is almost zero, so they buy their own or don't bother. The end game is that the internal fairy tail costs will be used as a excuse to outsource stuff and pay real money to expensive external suppliers to save the pretend money in the department budgets ...
- theshadowknows 5y ago
  One of the systems that my team is the owner of is our member facing communications platform - email, sms, mobile push, paper, IVR. We had a meeting a few weeks ago where we were going through budget for an internal client to onboard - we were going to vastly simplify and expand their capabilities. But when they saw the sticker price (only platform utilization, none of the resources on my team are "funded.") they blew up! "I can send email from my outlook for free!" ... "My kids send messages to each other all day and it doesn't cost a thing!!" ...so...the project died right there. It's so crazy to me.

paxys 5y ago

There is a good middle ground in the form of well funded startups (say series C and beyond) where there is still a scrappy small-company culture with a singular focus without the danger of running out of money overnight. Heck it's still probably better to join a late stage startup where a large exit is a sure thing over a megacorp.

sgtnoodle 5y ago
That's how I would describe working at Zipline, although I don't think anyone is looking for an exit any time soon. Folk still sweat about spending $20 on gear for projects that could save millions of dollars of NRE, not because of corporate pressure, but out of their own frugality.

phlipski 5y ago

Leave that group ASAP. Things will never get better. Your group is proving to the company that they can deliver without extra resources.

theshadowknows 5y ago
I'm working on it :) I had 5 interviews with a great (seeming) company last week and I'm hoping against hope to get an answer this week...