How to select a suitable startup company to join?

[Viewpoint] how to select a suitable startup company to join?

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What should I pay attention to when selecting a startup company? What kind of entrepreneurial company can you choose to make your career the best? Eric Stromberg 《How to choose the right startup to joinIt is pointed out in the article that there are seven suggestions for choosing a suitable start-up company. This article has been compiled. The full text is as follows:

The idea of joining a startup company is great. However, leaving an old company to join a new company may be a double-edged sword. Do not give up the opportunity of repeated selection and consideration because you are too eager to join. You are a very valuable person. Keep this in mind when looking for a startup company.

Not all start-ups were at the same level at the beginning. In my recent blog, I wrote that your experience in a startup company is very different from that in an investment bank. If you work at Morgan Stanley, it will train you into a banker. The experiences of start-ups vary greatly, and they will do their best to prepare for your entrepreneurial career.

You are an investor, but not money, but time spent investing in you.As a risk investor, we must make full use of the 30-minute interview with an entrepreneur to assess the risks and potential returns, therefore, you must pay special attention to ensuring that your investment is correct. The following are some suggestions on how to select a suitable startup company to join. I hope this will help you:

1. Make sure that the startup company has an experienced and reliable "consultant ".This consultant is not a person who can give you guidance when you study. Most importantly, he wants to be very interested in your professional development work. Recently, I have read a wonderful blog about how employees quit when they are tired of working and how managers prevent it. This article shows that a manager who is good at observation and caring for employees can discover their boredom and use actions to reverse this sentiment. If you have a lot of people around you who are interested in your development work, you can enjoy a lot of work.

Therefore, in a short interview, how can we find that the company has such "consultants" mentioned above? One way is to ask the publisher who is a consultant for their company. Check whether their answers are bumpy. Another way is to check whether the interviewer is interested in your long-term goal planning. Do they ask you questions like this: What kind of level do you expect from now on, five years later? 10 years later, or more? What do you want to learn from this job? What are your motivations for choosing a startup company? Based on your answers, do they further ask more in-depth questions, so as to explore and understand you in depth? These are the positive signals that the interviewer is very interested in your development work. They didn't regard you as a replacement for the company.

2. Understand the current format.In people's opinion, from Twitter to fast development through hackathon, two startups can all be called startups. Therefore, it is very important to carefully review the development phase of the startup company and what it means for your experience. First, it affects your risk. The four main factors that can reduce the risk of a startup company are: raising capital, discovering product/market fit, earning profits, and making profits (with trump cards in hand ). The more factors a startup has, the smaller the risk of failure, and the smaller the risk you face. (Note: Many startups say that their products have a market, but only a small part of them have them. You can make an objective decision on the multi-faceted research of the startup company .)

Second, different stages require different roles. For example, if a company does not find product/market fit, your work will be more exploratory, your role will have a larger chance of making a comedy change. You may have worked on two completely different projects in a few months. At the same time, as the company grows and you are placed in different parts of the business, the less likely you will be to wear "many different hats"-the more likely you will be to become an expert. There are no good or bad problems in these two aspects. It is important to know that these two kinds of experiences are different.

3. See the founder of the company.Recruitment plays an important role in creating a team. Therefore, in a startup company of less than 30 people, they have no reason to reject your request to meet one of them. What do you want to get from it? In new teams, integrity is the most important thing. If entrepreneurs tell you openly and honestly what development barriers they have to overcome, this is a good signal. Similarly, if you receive an offer and have a reasonable share distribution, you can ask what percentage your shares occupy. When asked, most companies will tell you the proportion. If they refuse to disclose this number to you, I am worried that they will not disclose other things to you.

You can also check whether the Founder is encouraging. Great start-ups need great people. If they cannot impress you, they cannot impress other future creators or investors. This is also a good time to ask "High Level" questions. Compare your views on the company with those of the founder. You must distinguish your analysis of the future development direction of the company from those of the company. You may be surprised to find that you and the founder have different opinions on the future development of the company.Interestingly, some investors will make this mistake-investing only based on their views on the company, without considering the opinions of the founders-and soon only regret it.

4. analyze the operation history.Ask some mean questions. The most important question is, "Have Someone left this company ?" If the answer is no, it is a positive signal. If you answer "yes", try to figure out why the person left. You can obtain the answer from the answer. If these employees leave and join other startups, this is a negative signal. If they leave and create their own company, this is a neutral and relatively positive signal. After they leave, they will pursue completely unrelated things (for example, taking a doctor in physics), which is also a neutral signal. Of course, it would be nice if this employee started to work in the bank after leaving. I have never seen this happen, so some mysterious things will happen here.

It is also an interesting question to ask the Founders how to prioritize business investment over capital raising. It will make you feel how the founder manages the funds well. This is a requirement for a good CEO (one of the main reasons for the failure of a startup company is to waste all the money ). Therefore, if the CEO tells you that they have only been doing fragmented work for nearly a year, they will make the company operate and increase their business. This shows that they are very good at managing funds. You can also ask what their current operation method is-when the founder says they only have enough funds to operate for six months in the bank, it may surprise you.

5. Spend a meaningful period of time in the office.Before hiring an employee, a startup company often asks him to complete a project. This is the best time to ask "Can I work in their office environment for one or two days when this project is completed. If you get this opportunity, carefully observe the company's daily culture to see if it is consistent with what you imagined.

6. Ask questions about "fun.Honestly ask company employees some direct questions, such as "do you like to work here ?" Or, "What is your favorite part at work ?" It is difficult to use words to describe how an unpleasant employee can answer these questions, but as long as you have a little observation, you will understand. If not, they may give a short answer, like "everything is fine-I like what I'm doing" and some other formulated answers. For employees who like their jobs, if you allow them, they can talk about the problem for several hours. Pay special attention to the nuances of different company employees in answering this question.

7. Discover a problem you are eager to solve.During the interview, I asked "What are the questions you are trying to solve and are very interested in ?" Use this time to stay curious about the problem and understand all its aspects. After the interview, you can relax and check if these problems suddenly emerge in your mind and think about possible solutions. If so, congratulations-you have discovered a problem that you are interested in solving and a question that makes you passionate.

Solving problems is a process of combining active and passive thinking. Active thinking means you consciously try to solve this problem at work. Passive thinking refers to the unconscious thinking you make on your way home and taking a bath. The biggest breakthrough often comes from these moments. If you work on a problem that you are really interested in, you will maximize the time you are passively thinking about, because your mind is always spinning around this problem, this increases your chances of discovering creative solutions.

Last thought.Everyone who wants to join a startup company is eager to do so. This is a great thing. Start-ups sell themselves well. During the study, stop and take a step back to make sure you have joined the right company. Joining the wrong company may lead to a worse income than stopping until you find the right company.

Original article:How to choose the right startup to join