4 ms·
I have an acid test for any place which claims to be a startup. When someone proclaims this, ask them to answer any two of the following questions: - What's m
by rachelbythebay 15y ago
I have an acid test for any place which claims to be a startup. When someone proclaims this, ask them to answer any two of the following questions:
- What's my name? (Covering your badge, naturally)
- What am I working on?
- Where am I from?
If the bigwigs can't answer that, I'm sorry, you've moved past actual startup-dom and you're just in la-la land where you just think you are one.
Unfortunately, I only thought of this acid test after leaving a place with 30K employees which had started proclaiming it semi-regularly during their Friday get-togethers.
- nirvana 15y agoMy benchmark is this: If they're a startup, then I want at least %1 equity on a fully diluted basis in stock options! Also, if they're public, they're not a startup!
- phillmv 15y agoUhm, I think you lost the game when you had a BADGE to cover up.
- Sukotto 15y agoIf you have a name badge, it's not a startup.
- nostrademons 15y agoGoogle never actually claims they're a startup, they just say they want to be like a startup. There're varying degrees of success at this, ranging from "if I squint really hard, I could almost see it" to "Yeah...I don't think so." But I give 'em props for trying, as most companies with 30k employees don't even make the effort. BTW, I could go all the way up to the VP level within the Search bigwigs and they'd be able to answer this.