I don't agree with the "no politics" point. Sure, there might be no politics within the startup, but there can be a lot of politics involving investors and the

I don't agree with the "no politics" point. Sure, there might be no politics within the startup, but there can be a lot of politics involving investors and their other portfolio companies, or partners and customers who are large/few enough to drive product or technical direction, etc. I've been at startups that have been told "don't do X because it will cannibalize stablemate Y's market" by investors. I've recently become aware of a VC telling companies "use stablemate Z's product and don't criticize it in public" situation. This same pressure can be applied by customers and partners, driven by politics within those larger companies, and can be hard for a small company to resist. So don't think you won't need those political skills when your working at or with a startup.