As a Head of Community responsible for stewarding and sharing knowledge, I thought this Q from a community member a prescient one: "How do people decide whethe

As a Head of Community responsible for stewarding and sharing knowledge, I thought this Q from a community member a prescient one: "How do people decide whether working at seed/A stage is right for you?" One of the replies to this Q in our Uncommon community Slack pointed back to a HN thread based on the same question: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18534132 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18534132 That HN thread is too old to reply to, so I thought it'd be useful to re-open the convo. The below is the answer I offered (abridged for characters): Great question! I have a feeling the HN post is full of gold, but before it biases me in my thinking, I'll share a bit about my own experiences at early stage startups! My 'n' is small (3), so please receive this with my 'n' of 3 experience, rather than an entirety of experience (which the HN article probably represents well!) When folks ask me about whether I'd recommend working at a startup, I ask them to reflect on: 1. What's most important to their lifestyle at this period in their life/What's best for them in terms of work-style that allows them to show up best and produce work they're proud of? - If it's stability and routine, I personally haven't found the magic way of infusing my life with that when at a startup - If it's eagerness to experiment quickly, evolve and iterate through uncertainty, and band together with colleagues and customers to solve something, then the seed/A/B stage can be super rewarding! 2. There's a conversation to be had around 'ego' - For me, there's a large amount of ego-lessness that has to happen at a startup. You have to constantly "kill your darlings" (is there a better phrase for that?), because what worked two weeks ago or what you thought would work next week just didn't, or doesn't, or won't - Some people love exercising that muscle of ego-lessness. For others, it's super disruptive to their work style and well-being. I suppose this goes back to the stability/certainty/routine preferences I mentioned above 3. There's a conversation around compensation and "job security" you should have (with yourself/your family/dependents as well as with the hiring team) - Usually there's less cash and more equity on the table. Does this suit your current needs in life? - Startups often (almost always, I've seen) have to respond way more quickly to fluctuations in the market. This results in having to lay folks off not because of any performance/merit issue, but because of sheer cashflow, balance sheet adjustments, and/or stage/size/right-now needs vs having a "padding" that can offer buffer. It's not personal, but it can still hurt! (Both from a job security POV and a "is it me/my work/my value" POV). This again goes back to the stability/certainty/routine I mentioned above—you should make sure you're ok/good/ready for a relatively larger uncertainty around job security. 4. Work-life balance considerations - I've heard of startups that afford this to their employees/teams—I have not experienced this myself. This is not the fault of my employers or teams, but rather a function of the first bullet point I mentioned—when I've worked at the startups I've chosen, it's because I'm super jazzed about the work and team and product and vision and customer set and community (like here at Common Room!), and I am really dedicated and excited to be a part of it and wanting to evolve with it and helping to co-build it. That also means that I work/am reachable pretty much all of the time! - If that's not the place you wish to be in your life at this moment, I'd think really hard about how you'll set boundaries and adhere to them, and I'd also establish expectations around those boundaries with your potential new company/team. And even when and if you're able to do that, I'd still be prepared for those boundaries to...erode ;) ... I hope that helps! Now I'm off to read the HN article and see where my experience overlaps (or doesn't) :)