
Ask HN: What should I ask before joining a new startup? - cupofjoakim
Hey guys,<p>I&#x27;ve recently been offered a development position at a (kind of) newly founded startup. Before I go ahead and accept, what are the questions I should be asking to make sure that I don&#x27;t get myself in a bad position? The guys I&#x27;ve been talking to seem nice enough, but I don&#x27;t know them well enough trust them.
======
dev1n
Who are their board members?

Who are their investors?

Why did the cofounders choose these people?

What is their runway (hint, if they say they have three months or less of
runway, think deeply about the risk you are taking on)

What is the tech cofounders background in? Does he have technical leadership
skills? (Trust me you do not want to join a startup where the tech cofounder
is barely able to write code and thinks design patterns only apply to UI)

Figure out how much equity you need based on how much salary you're giving up
to join these guys (I wrote a blog post about how to approximately calculate
this [1])

Have they done their research on their market? Is their market willing to
actually pay for a product? Basically, how do they plan to become profitable?

[1]: [http://dhurley14.github.io/blog/2016/02/21/how-to-
equity/](http://dhurley14.github.io/blog/2016/02/21/how-to-equity/)

------
nerdy
Depends upon your concerns and what you're willing to accept.

What would define success as? Do you need stable income? Are you wanting to
bank on them being the next unicorn (looking for equity)?

There is so much required to understand your circumstances and goals that this
question is too broad to be answered.

