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Ask HN: What are the best startups to join?

7 points by vishalzone2002 14y ago

Hi All, What are the best startups to join according to you? Best in terms of potential growth and not culture or benefits. Startups that have potential to become google or facebook like and would be great to join at a early stage.

verelo 14y ago
People who you think are about to get funded, or have JUST (like in the last 1-2 months) taken on a series A round. Edit: My reasoning for saying this is that these are the companies where great positions will be opening up and created very shortly. Also given that they've taken on funding, or are about to close, they've been put through their paces by the VC's, so you can have some confidence that they know what they're doing (This is also why i said Series A, not seed...seed is a real gamble)
- aashaykumar92 14y ago
  I think this is an excellent response! To add on, if you truly want to hit it big (like the Googles, Facebooks, etc), look at the market space the company is in and moreover, see the potential spaces it can/plans scale into. This is much less based on metrics as the above response, but it is definitely important especially if you want to get into a company that can hit it big. And this is also a question (about which markets they plan to scale into) I think you can ask the company if/when they are interviewing you. Best of luck!
- vishalzone2002 14y ago
  What is the best source to know about a startup's series funding? Techcrunch,etc?
vishalzone2002 14y ago
Do you have any specific names ? Since I am professionally a data engineer, I believe Cloudera, Palantir are few but have already grown a lot.
argonaut 14y ago
I'd like to note that usually it's a bad deal to be one of the first 1-5 employees at a startup, even if they've raised seed funding. The reason is the startup has only been de-risked by a factor of, say, 5, yet your equity stake is lower than the founders by a factor, of say, 10 (assume two co-founders who get 40% each, and you get 4% - early employees often get less in fact); you might as well be a founder of your own company - the risk-reward profile is often better. Now, obviously if you absolutely believe in the strength of the company, this point is moot and you should join anyway. I think the best opportunities lie in companies that have already closed a Series A, which means they've picked up traction / validation, but still have a long way to grow.
drasa 14y ago
Joining my start-up would be a great choice. asa@wihlbeck.com
stevenameyer 14y ago
My personal selection would be based first and foremost on the team. If the team is really solid then I would look for a company that I believe in as far as what they are trying to do. My personal opinion is that if you are looking to hit it big as a company you need to have good people working towards a goal they believe in. Other outside factors can be hit or miss but the truth is that very few companies go big, but the one thing they all seem to have in common is great people who have bought into the vision of the company.
- vishalzone2002 14y ago
  I think looking at the team is a very good idea. I did like to add a research that I am doing about the percentage failures of the VCs. So far, my study shows a great bias of chances to be successful based on the VC firm involved.
vishalzone2002 14y ago
Great related article https://medium.com/startups-and-tech/8c4523242c85 https://medium.com/startups-and-tech/8c4523242c85

verelo 14y ago

People who you think are about to get funded, or have JUST (like in the last 1-2 months) taken on a series A round. Edit: My reasoning for saying this is that these are the companies where great positions will be opening up and created very shortly. Also given that they've taken on funding, or are about to close, they've been put through their paces by the VC's, so you can have some confidence that they know what they're doing (This is also why i said Series A, not seed...seed is a real gamble)

aashaykumar92 14y ago
I think this is an excellent response! To add on, if you truly want to hit it big (like the Googles, Facebooks, etc), look at the market space the company is in and moreover, see the potential spaces it can/plans scale into. This is much less based on metrics as the above response, but it is definitely important especially if you want to get into a company that can hit it big. And this is also a question (about which markets they plan to scale into) I think you can ask the company if/when they are interviewing you. Best of luck!
vishalzone2002 14y ago
What is the best source to know about a startup's series funding? Techcrunch,etc?

vishalzone2002 14y ago

Do you have any specific names ? Since I am professionally a data engineer, I believe Cloudera, Palantir are few but have already grown a lot.

argonaut 14y ago

I'd like to note that usually it's a bad deal to be one of the first 1-5 employees at a startup, even if they've raised seed funding. The reason is the startup has only been de-risked by a factor of, say, 5, yet your equity stake is lower than the founders by a factor, of say, 10 (assume two co-founders who get 40% each, and you get 4% - early employees often get less in fact); you might as well be a founder of your own company - the risk-reward profile is often better. Now, obviously if you absolutely believe in the strength of the company, this point is moot and you should join anyway. I think the best opportunities lie in companies that have already closed a Series A, which means they've picked up traction / validation, but still have a long way to grow.

drasa 14y ago

Joining my start-up would be a great choice. asa@wihlbeck.com

stevenameyer 14y ago

My personal selection would be based first and foremost on the team. If the team is really solid then I would look for a company that I believe in as far as what they are trying to do. My personal opinion is that if you are looking to hit it big as a company you need to have good people working towards a goal they believe in. Other outside factors can be hit or miss but the truth is that very few companies go big, but the one thing they all seem to have in common is great people who have bought into the vision of the company.

vishalzone2002 14y ago
I think looking at the team is a very good idea. I did like to add a research that I am doing about the percentage failures of the VCs. So far, my study shows a great bias of chances to be successful based on the VC firm involved.

vishalzone2002 14y ago

Great related article https://medium.com/startups-and-tech/8c4523242c85 https://medium.com/startups-and-tech/8c4523242c85