

60 Days at a Startup - jrich
http://blog.mixpanel.com/60-days-at-a-startup

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kno
I expected more in experience sharing than general advice; good points anyway.

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elbrodeur
The point on the company's team is the most salient, I think. If this is your
first startup, making sure you're a good fit for them and they're a good fit
for you is really important. Consider a couple of the reasons people join
startups:

1) To learn. If you join a company with bad founders, poor communication or
inexperienced members you can still learn, but there are barriers to learning
that are unnecessary.

2) To have a significant stake in something new. If your team does not value
you, it's easy to get discouraged and stop caring about the product or to feel
marginalized and worker-beeish: If you wanted to build something for someone
else, why not just work for a more established company?

3) To build work experience. If you don't fit with the team or the team sucks,
it's going to be really hard to put on your resume for your next
venture/application.

In short, at an early stage startup, your place on the team can literally make
or break the product. If you guys work well together, the product will fail or
succeed on it's own merits; if you don't work well together it can doom the
company.

Be smart.

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HelenL14
Would be interesting to hear about how he stumbled on the position. Startup
recruiting just doesn't happen the way corporate recruiting does. Does that
mean being up in the bay area (or other startup hub) is crucial to landing a
great startup experience? Outside of co-founding your own...

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drlisp
Which leads to the question - should one strive to join a startup as an early
employee or should one strive to be a cofounder?

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elbrodeur
This is a question is sort of a chicken/egg problem. By the time you're ready
to be a co-founder you usually are one or have been one before.

It's like being a parent, really: Reading every parenting book on the planet,
getting a degree in Child Development and attending lamaze classes won't make
you a good parent. Being a good parent will make you a good parent.

By all means strive; but by the time you're ready you'll probably find months
or years of being a cofounder behind you.

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Murkin
Am I the only one who finds it a bit premature to start giving advise with
zero experience after 60 days on a job ?

