
Evaluating startup offers - patgenzler
http://www.excitingrole.com/how-to-do-startup-due-diligence/#.h/
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LoSboccacc
Gonna add my personal .02 based on multiple startup experience.

Enjoy the ride. Most startup fails, so everything in evaluating an offer has
to take that in account.

Make sure you bargain for a great experience to put in your resume for the
next gig. Make sure something survive out of the startup when it fails, like
keeping a blog on the side talking about your challenges is a great way to
ensure your portfolio endures.

When you evaluate your stock options, the right ratio to which consider it
is.. zero. If you are a provileged employee and truly believe in the project,
go for equity. Company will be limited lyability anyway early stages and stock
options will likely never vest.

If you are a side project junkie, try to bargain stock options for a relaxed
non compete so you can keep your midnight coding exploits profitable.

Make sure the tech stack is marketable. Both in technology terms (java node
whatever) but also in direcion: intelligence and analytics go always well on
any resume.

Do try and engage anyone involved in the startup, from ceo to customers. Idea
can be had for free and learning a businnes space with it's workings and pain
points is always worth it. Be helpful to anyone and grow your network. You
gonna need that always.

Last, don't let the starup consume your life. It's just not worth it.

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ian0
I wouldn't worry too much about trying to estimate a startups chances unless
your a domain expert. The more literature you read the more likely it is
you'll begin to be over/under-estimate their chances of success.

In my experience the challenge of working in any stage of organisation is
fighting its disfunction. If you love your field of work, then this will be
likely your only nemesis. A prime benefit of working in a startup is your
relative power to do this. So embrace it and use it as a place to learn how to
get stuff done. This will serve you well wherever you eventually end up and
expose you to people and functions well outside your domain.

Given that:

1) Is what they are proposing reasonably sensible? Ask someone normal if
unsure :P

2) Is it interesting to you?

3) Do they seem like intelligent, friendly people?

4) Challenge them on a product/architecture decision they have made and see
how they respond.

5) Ask how much runway they have and be comfortable with it

Finally, you only live once, take a chance, really try to do something new.
When your there, speak up. If your lucky you'll have a good experience with
good people and learn a hell of a lot.

~~~
edoceo
Spot on, minor add:

I start with #4, it gives many clues about #3 and may reveal things about #2.
For #1, don't ask friends, ask prospective customers.

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entee
I think the major thing this post fails to emphasize is how the CEO and other
executives/managers interact. I would specifically ask:

1.) Tell me about a situation where you disagreed with your team, but trusted
them and was convinced. 2.) Tell me about another one of those. (There's
always one canned answer)

In other words: Who can tell the CEO "No" and do they know when to listen and
when to push. If the CEO doesn't know how to do that well, I think the company
is doomed, and it's incredibly hard to do well.

~~~
CardenB
There are plenty of successful companies where telling the CEO "no" doesn't
really happen.

~~~
entee
Maybe so, but how many of them stay that way? How many of them are startups?
How many become less successful because of it?

My guess is that this is especially dangerous for startups. Think about it,
you're a founder and you've been told "No" by investors, experts, customers,
thousands of times. Now all of a sudden you've proved them all wrong, you've
built a business and it's starting to show promise.

But to scale, you're going to need some of those experts who told you "No". If
you're building a car, you're gonna need to hire some people that have run a
car factory or managed a complex supply chain. You're gonna need to trust them
when they tell you, "I need 6 months, 3 months isn't doable". Or not. Maybe
you're right, you can push beyond the possible. Maybe you're wrong and you
can't, breaking your team and product in the process. Which one is right? You
choose. But don't screw up, it's all on the line.

I think this is one of the least appreciated traits of the giants. Musk, Jobs,
they pushed their people to the breaking point, but clearly they also knew
what to drop and what to insist on to get things out the door. Quoting Jobs,
"Real artists ship." Jobs famously argued against an app store, then was
convinced and then pushed on it as hard as anyone.

I could go on, but the point is this kind of decision is fiendishly hard, and
I think it separates the great from the mediocre.

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askafriend
I feel like I just got content-market'd. They get me every time!

~~~
johnxie
Got me too, but quite refreshing to see something published with Ghost.

~~~
fapjacks
I moved my blog to Ghost a couple years ago and the one thing about it I
really like is that it never gets in my way. Way back when, it was feature-
bare, but I could write markdown and publish easily. There are more features
now, but it's not bloated and still feels like it enables me more than
anything else.

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wimagguc
Bottomline is, always protect the downside. Startups do offer a shot at
becoming rich, but they are more likely to fail than not, so in the event of
the business going down you still want to show something for the years spent.

Basically: make sure to get a fair salary down the road, or at least make sure
you learn something that you otherwise couldn't (and makes it easier to find a
better paying job in the worst-worst case scenario).

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kriro
I'd add "is the technology they use interesting" which for me is similar to
their "is the team worth it". If I assume the company will fail but I got to
hack some Lisp for a couple of years instead of writing Java code that might
be worth something (languages picked just to make the point).

~~~
kazinator
However, there is always: "the company will go through the roof, allowing me
to hack on Lisp for the rest of my life". :)

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kod
I think the 'you have more to lose' advice is wrong. It's still a sellers
market for technical talent. As long as you're getting paid reasonably and
working on interesting things, you'll be fine after N months at a failed
startup.

