

How to join a startup (by Bijan Sabet) - dennykmiu
http://bijansabet.com/post/335646309/how-to-join-a-startup

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dennykmiu
Interesting article written from the perspective of a VC. For anyone out there
who is thinking of joining a startup, my suggestion is that you go in with
open eyes, not open heart. If you are going to be hired as employee, make sure
you are treated as an employee and are compensated accordingly. The test is
simple. Are you going to be paid at market value? If you are, no problem. It
would be a great learning experience and you are not taking any financial risk
(opportunity risk, may be). But if you are asked to cut back (or even forgo)
on salaries, then you are a co-Founder no matter how long the startup has been
around, how long the Founder has been working on his/her idea and who is the
VC's behind the scene. Make sure you are rewarded as such (i.e., lots of
Founder stock, not stock options). Most importantly, you need to learn the
difference between "liking" someone and "respecting" someone. As an
entrepreneur, you don't need to "like" someone to have a business relationship
with them. It is not an ethical violation to pretend to like. You just cannot
pretend to "respect".

