When I was interested in being an employee (not anymore) at a typical VC backed startup I looked for the following:
1. Consistent and strong revenue growth every month (should be 50%+ MoM for an early stage company, otherwise I'd assume someone is asleep at the wheel) i.e. growth potential. Example: OpenAI grew something like 4000% last year (even as a late stage startup)
2. Above average pay and equity
3. Strong leadership team where I felt I could learn something from them. I didn't care how famous/iconic the leaders were. I just avoided places where the leadership team was checked out or toxic, or made the wrong business decisions, which I figured out quickly by asking employees how they liked the leadership team during the interview. People are surprisingly honest if you just ask them direct questions like that.
I also exclusively interviewed at places where I already had a referral from someone I trusted which weeded out a lot of trash companies.
I did not care about:
- Number of meetings
- Requirement to be in office or not
- Vacation days
- Teambuilding/"culture" activities/events
- Titles
Because I was interested in growing my net worth and scaling up my skills as fast as possible. I was willing to move to wherever to make it happen.
If I had to pick one factor that was the most important, it was the leadership team strength which is what in my experience causes a high growth company to succeed or fail. A lot of other things can be fixed later but toxic or incompetent management is a tough one to deal with.
When I was interested in being an employee (not anymore) at a typical VC backed startup I looked for the following:
1. Consistent and strong revenue growth every month (should be 50%+ MoM for an early stage company, otherwise I'd assume someone is asleep at the wheel) i.e. growth potential. Example: OpenAI grew something like 4000% last year (even as a late stage startup)
2. Above average pay and equity
3. Strong leadership team where I felt I could learn something from them. I didn't care how famous/iconic the leaders were. I just avoided places where the leadership team was checked out or toxic, or made the wrong business decisions, which I figured out quickly by asking employees how they liked the leadership team during the interview. People are surprisingly honest if you just ask them direct questions like that.
I also exclusively interviewed at places where I already had a referral from someone I trusted which weeded out a lot of trash companies.
I did not care about:
- Number of meetings
- Requirement to be in office or not
- Vacation days
- Teambuilding/"culture" activities/events
- Titles
Because I was interested in growing my net worth and scaling up my skills as fast as possible. I was willing to move to wherever to make it happen.
If I had to pick one factor that was the most important, it was the leadership team strength which is what in my experience causes a high growth company to succeed or fail. A lot of other things can be fixed later but toxic or incompetent management is a tough one to deal with.
That's very wise feedback. Without great leadership, nothing gets done. Thanks Ben.