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The path to getting into these founder / c-suite roles is those founding engineer roles in which you can learn how to scale and operate these ventures. The fou
by Berone 3y ago
The path to getting into these founder / c-suite roles is those founding engineer roles in which you can learn how to scale and operate these ventures.
The founding engineer role at 0.5% is not meant to be a role to retire on, but a stepping stone to those bigger roles.
- satvikpendem 3y agoNot really, it's better to just start your own startup instead, there is not much need to spend years as a founding engineer before becoming a founder, you might learn some skills but it's nothing you can't learn yourself, as evidenced by the people who are first time founders who did not previously work at a startup. If you get to some scale and get acquired (or even shut down), you can leverage that for future higher positions that a founding employee would not get you.
- Berone 3y agoIt just depends on if you have the background and talent to warrant that role. I think that is an exceptional case for someone to get funding and support to build a venture without any operating experience.
- lazide 3y agoIf operating == running an existing similar company, then almost no successful founders I’m aware of had such experience before hand, did they?
- satvikpendem 3y agoMost companies that YC and other VCs fund are by first-time founders, mostly those who have not been in other startups. Like the other commenter said, the path to being a founder is actually founding.
- Ancalagon 3y agoExcept I personally know a number of CTO/co-founders that never served their time that way and went straight from Google/FB/big-tech to CTO..
- Berone 3y agoSure, I didn't mean to imply it's the only path to those seats.
- Seattle3503 3y agoIt seems common enough that early engineers are purged for "higher quality talent" from the big companies at some point. Most of the high quality engineers won't join early on because they don't work for startup equity. Once the business is established and salaries are higher those FANG engineers are happy to join.
- ClarityJones 3y ago> meant by whom?
- Berone 3y agoThe folks designing the compensation plan and explaining the plan to the potential employee. I can't speak to unethical cases in which things are misrepresented.
- compiler-guy 3y agoA "Founding Engineer" at 0.5% is an inflated title for "someone who can actually produce a project but is going to get clobbered at exit time." The title itself is mostly a lie.
- Berone 3y agoI agree. What started as a title that signaled the individual was there at the earliest parts of building the venture, it has been abused.
- catlover76 3y agoThe path to being a founder is actually founding. One doesn't need to be a "founding engineer" beforehand.
- lazide 3y agoBeing a better wheel isn’t going to put one in the drivers seat - no matter how good of one they are. That said, if someone is the type who pays attention and learns what is going on, being close enough to see certainly helps.