
Ask HN: How to pick a good startup to work for when you're not business-savvy? - ccdev
I worked for three small businesses and they all either flopped or ran stagnant and started going in the red. I joined all these companies where there were 5-10 employees.<p>I read blog articles about people that joined a company when they were this small, only to be acquired by a huge company and then they made great yields from that acquisition. I know it&#x27;s survivorship bias but I can&#x27;t help but think that those early employees that are not co-founders mostly got lucky. Is that actually true, though? Is picking a small company that will have a bigger future mostly a numbers game, or can I apply strategy to it without needing to be business minded?<p>As the title suggests, I&#x27;m not business savvy. I&#x27;m just a programmer looking to make a living. I interview with companies big and small, I never cut the mustard with interviews with large companies so realistically I have only the smallest companies to choose from.<p>I browse Craigslist, AngelList, and BuiltInChicago to apply to places to go work for. I&#x27;m pretty much lone-wolfing it out there, without any leads from prior employers. And I don&#x27;t know what constitutes a company that will be likely to have a good exit.<p>Working for small companies only to see each one drain their employees (false promises, no benefits, slump in sales) as the company as whole is losing money got old fast. How do you find &quot;the one&quot;? I cannot believe it&#x27;s just a numbers game, just brute-forcing your career through before you find a company that is good and doing interesting enough things to get millions of dollars of funding and then bought by a huge company.<p>As I said, I haven&#x27;t cut the mustard for big company jobs, but this is what I&#x27;m interested to know. If you&#x27;re working a technical job, how do you know how to pick a good small company that has the best future?
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nostrademons
Don't browse for places to go work for. Browse for new startups whose products
you would want to _use_. When you find one you love, apply for a job at it.
You'll have a leg up on the competition because you know and love their
product.

Companies fail because nobody wants to use their product. The process of going
from a product nobody wants to one lots of people want is difficult and
fraught with uncertainty; most startups fail to make this leap, which is
miserable for most of the employees involved. Conversely, if you love a
product, chances are there are many people just like you who also love it or
will love it once they hear about it. Passionate users = growing userbase =
more capital or revenue = your stock options will actually be worth something.

(Disclaimer: I worked for two startups that totally flopped; in both cases, I
had no idea what they actually did until I started. Then eventually I said
"fuck this getting rich shit", went to work for Google - which wasn't really a
startup at the time, but I loved their products - and ended up making a lot
more than any realistic startup would've gotten me. YMMV, but this seems to be
a pretty decent heuristic.)

~~~
ccdev
That's a good suggestion to look at the product first and see if I'll like it.
I will look westward for those companies because I find more interesting
software and other products there. Most of the startup ideas in my city,
Chicago, hate to say it, sound mundane. Chicago is big, has many software
_jobs_ , but not much in the way of software startups or unicorns. It's not a
tech center of USA and entrepreneurs built a different mindset I think. Some
have even gone as far as saying, a company like Snapchat will never have grown
as big as it did if it started in my city.

I'll probably not work for Google, not because I don't want to, but generally
speaking any company that has been doing well for 10+ years hasn't given me
any offers or rejects my resume.

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biastoact
Some general thoughts:

1\. Look at the product. Can you describe what it is, what value it creates
for customers? Is it exciting? It probably shouldn't be. In 9 out of 10 cases
boring products in boring industries will lead to steady work and chance to
add real value to the company, get raises, etc. Small company unicorns can
raise money, but they don't last. Successful companies ship products and
create happy customers. 2\. You want a company that is high trust with their
team - including in interviews. How many customers do they have? What is their
runway? How much money do they make? What are the biggest complaints from
customers? Do they have any raving fans, what do they say? Who are the
dominant personalities in the business, who leads? If the company isn't
willing to go into detail even over the phone on this stuff then tred
carefully. 3\. Read! Don't give up an being business-savvy. There are a lot of
good online lectures, tons of great books, podcasts, etc. You don't need to be
an expert to start to develop a nose for what is going on. Listen or read
something once a day and you'll gather the tools, vocabulary, and emotional
perceptions to ask better questions and even help companies execute their
strategies. Believe me, having a developer who cares about product, customer,
and execution even half as much as they care about code can be the difference
between life and death for a small company.

Some resources: Entreleadership (good, easy book on leadership and business):
[https://www.amazon.com/EntreLeadership-Practical-Business-
Wi...](https://www.amazon.com/EntreLeadership-Practical-Business-Wisdom-
Trenches/dp/1451617852/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499463114&sr=8-1&keywords=dave+ramsey+entre+leadership)

Tropical MBA Podcast (will touch on sales, product, marketing, teams, and
more):
[http://www.tropicalmba.com/podcasts/](http://www.tropicalmba.com/podcasts/)

Gimlet Startup Podcast (start with Episode 1 to go behind the scenes of what
the business leaders are feeling):
[https://gimletmedia.com/startup/](https://gimletmedia.com/startup/)

Harvard Business School Youtube Channel:
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk8n46m74K5XWfdeBzOXDfA](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk8n46m74K5XWfdeBzOXDfA)

