Finding your Precious: my 10 tips for picking the right startup

Why do I write this article? Well, my friends and colleagues asked me many questions about this specific topic: what do I need to focus on while I am looking for a job as a developer?

I spent quite some time asking myself the same question. I read a lot of articles online, I discussed this with a lot of smart people, I went through various recruitment processes, and more importantly, my previous job experience gave me a lot to think about. It was my first job after finishing my military service as a software developer and team leader, and I didn’t do such a great job prioritizing the most critical things. But at least, it taught me what I need to look for from now on.

Companies are competing for developers these days, especially ones with my background, is no secret. Every company tries to attract talents by offering more and more fancy benefits. So naturally, I had some tough decisions to make. Choosing which company to work for is more complicated than it looks. How do you look beyond the flashy parties, well-stocked cafeterias, and appealing office spaces? People tend to be blinded by these benefits but, to tell you the truth, they should not be your primary focus while making this decision.

Living the Startup dream

Before we begin, let’s discuss first why you should join a startup company (instead of a corporate). It is a vast topic, so I’ll only scratch the surface.

In my opinion, these are the most significant pros of working as a developer in a startup company:

• Impact — In large corporate organizations, you’re “just a cog in the machine.” In startup companies, especially at an early stage, you have a lot of impact on the company and the product.

• Money is not a dirty word — One of the main reasons people join startups is stock options. They carry high risks, especially at an early stage, but also offer the potential for high rewards. So even a tiny amount of shares can be worth a lot of money if the company ends up going public or is sold. Large corporations, however, provide their new employees only with a limited upside in stock options.

• Tasks diversity — When you work at a corporation, you usually focus on a specific field and narrowly defined tasks. In startups, you get to be involved in everything and do whatever is needed to make the company successful.

Now that we got that out of the way, let’s dive into the subject you are here for:

My 10 things to focus on when searching for a startup job

1. A product vision you believe in.
This is the most basic requirement. What do I mean by product vision? Well, startups often change their product (pivot) after interacting with the market. That’s why product vision is the main thing here, rather than the product itself. The vision is what the company wants to achieve — not the how — and that usually doesn’t change.
So why is that important? Because you will have much more motivation and fun working on something you like and believe in, rather than something you don’t.

2. An experienced management team
By upper-level management, I mean the founder and C-level management such as CEO, CTO, or VP R&D. These people directly impact the success of the business, so their skills and personality are crucial factors.
Experienced upper-level managers tend to have higher success rates. Since most startups have a low success rate, it’s essential to have the advantage of experience.

3. An experienced team
Experienced team members can help you learn, grow and become more professional. After all, this is how you build a successful career path!
In addition, an experienced team can develop a better product in a shorter period of time, which is crucial to any company’s success.

4. Startup stage
It is a vast topic, but I’ll try to summarize it as much as I can. I like to split the startup stages into three:

• Pre-seed, aka the founding stage. There are no employees or external funds yet. This is the riskiest stage where most startups fail. I would instead not advise people to enter companies at that stage, especially if they lack experience.

• Seed / Round A - At this point, the startup has already raised some external funding. This reduces the risk by far for several reasons: First, you can learn about the abilities of upper-level management. Second, you can find out what other professionals — investors and market — think about the startup. Indeed, a significant amount of funds raised usually indicates that the idea has some potential. In my opinion, this is the best time to join a startup because of the risk/reward ratio.

• Growth or post-round A-stages. In my opinion, startups at this stage already have a different vibe, closer to corporate companies, and the amount of expected equity is significantly lower.

5. Funding
The level of funding is one of the most critical criteria that impact the success of a startup. Well-funded startups can attract better talents since they can compete with larger companies. They can also launch their product sooner and invest more in marketing efforts. Because the success rate of startups is generally low at first glance, every dime counts.

6. Wages and other compensation
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Still, there is one thing I would like to emphasize: in most cases, startup wages are lower than those paid by large enterprise companies. However, it potentially gets balanced out with equity (see next).

7. Millionaire potential, aka company equity
Stock options or shares are your upsides, your jackpot opportunity, your chance to be like the janitor who became a millionaire because they happened to work at Google. These numbers aren’t important when talking about shares, but the percentage out of the company stock is.

8. The social setting and the people around you
As a full-time employee, you will probably spend most of your waking hours at work with your co-workers. Make sure you vibe with the people you will work with. Note that excellent team spirit is often a result of management style, so that’s another great indicator of management quality.

9. Work Model
It’s a fairly new consideration, at least to me (working parents may have considered this before). Since Covid-19 appeared and prevented us from going to the office, many companies adopted a hybrid/remote work model. I think that the hybrid model is ideal because it saves you the commute and helps you be more productive (on the days you are at home), but still ensures that you get to interact with your co-workers personally.

10. Learning and growth
As someone who values self-improvement, I believe companies should support and encourage employees to do just that. Many companies know that their employees are their most valuable asset and invest in both parties’ benefits. I advise you to seek out a company that will help you grow both professionally and personally.

Conclusion

In this article, I have discussed what I consider the ten most important things to focus on when looking for a job in a startup. Ultimately, when I looked for my current position, I tried to balance between those points and find a place to combine them all. After a month of hard investigation and many interviews, I finally found my precious at Jit. I hope this will help you find yours.