Twenty year old tells you why you should work at a startup.
The term “startup” has been bandied around for several years now to describe an idea of working in a basement with five chairs and eight people, scrappy young ventures and huge-tech companies. But what exactly is a startup?
A startup is a company or a project that has recently begun operation, undertaken by one or more entrepreneurs who want to tackle a problem in society by developing a product or service that could provide a long-term solution. According to the co-founder & CEO of Warby-Parker, Neil Blumenthal, “A startup is a company working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed”. It’s the idea of risk-taking that has given our world some of the most phenomenal products and services from Airbnb, Uber, Apple- all of which are successful examples of start-ups.
However, it differs from a small-scale business. Essentially, a startup focuses on driving top-line revenue at a fast pace whereas small businesses have long-term goals and aim for stable-growth in an existing market.
But if you are looking for a job and you do not know where to start, here are the top 6 reasons why you should work in a start-up!
1. With a smaller team, comes bigger responsibilities
Working at a startup generally means that you can count all your team members on your hands. Because of the nature of the team, the lines of your responsibilities will merge. For example, a content writer might also be responsible for managing social media or a product manager gets to manage the marketing funnel for boosting sales. Consequently, this opportunity turns out to be far more valuable as you learn from all different aspects of the business. You get to understand your product while constantly trying to improve it. This helps you to further understand your target market and cater to your product according to their needs. After all, Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook from the Harvard dormitory and 17 years down the road, it has about 2.6 billion users with a market value worth over $700billion (£500bn). Working in a startup means that only you and your team are responsible for your success which is the greatest form of motivation there ever could be.
You will be a part of the core team- the team that takes a business idea and transforms it into a successful business making you irreplaceable for the business down the line. Now isn’t that an empowering place to be right out of the university?
2. Learning from innovative minds
There are two types of working individuals- Contributors and creators. The former contributes to an established business while the latter create one from scratch and has more to offer than your regular supervisor. Entrepreneurs look at a problem as an opportunity and their solution-oriented nature provides an innovative answer to it. According to Forbes, mentored start-ups grow 3.5x faster and raise 7x more money. As an employee in a company where hierarchy is just limited to LinkedIN, informal communication and the set of like-minded individuals with the same motive as yours, helps you to learn and grow twice as fast as in a corporate job. While working in a startup, everything runs by you and you are aware of the most fundamental processes which provide a chance to not only learn about how the business is functioning but also how any business can succeed.
So in essence, you are also learning how to become the next successful entrepreneur.
WHAT ELSE DO YOU REALLY WANT?
3. The satisfying value of ownership
As an employee, you can work in Apple or Vogue but your sense of accomplishment will remain vague. You will be contributing in small amounts for a cause that you might not even be familiar with but once you have created something tangible- something you can use or you know people are benefiting from, you begin to appreciate personal ownership. Working at a startup and spreading the word about the launch of your new mobile app or a new product, a product that you worked on for endless nights with nothing but a coffee (sometimes a pint of Guinness) and helped bring into existence, instills the value of pride and ownership which cannot be matched with any monetary perks. You will not be relying on others to provide for you which will help you become more independent and self-reliant. Knowing that your every little effort is helping the business to climb another step helps to sustain the do-or-die attitude.
You will see the company and yourself as one entity that will provide you the satisfying value of ownership!
4. More growth opportunities
The scope of growth is tremendous in a startup. You might not be paid luxuriously but the fruits you will be reaping are certainly going to be priceless. You receive opportunities to work on different (or all) projects than working on one at a time in a corporate job, you learn more about team synchronization, the importance of meeting deadlines, communicating with clients, supply-demand chain, marketing of your services, creating social media campaigns from scratch and the list never ends. Trying on different roles allows you to confront skills you never thought you had in the first place. While working in a startup, I have also realized that I had the privilege of being a part of prime discussions for business growth that I would otherwise have been left out of, if I were working in a corporate. You even learn so much from the mistakes while working in a startup that it prepares you for every challenge in the professional world and helps you to grow differently than the pool of candidates out there.
You sort of become the all-rounder child that your parents had always wanted you to be!
5. The team works together
While working in a fancy company can provide you recognition within the common folks, a startup provides you constant recognition for all your efforts within your small team. The chances of a boss stealing away your thunder are slimmer than slim shady because working in a small team, it’s nearly impossible not to notice a job well done or to bestow credit where it's due. If you succeed at your task, meet your deadline every day or suggest an idea that generates revenue, the whole team will inevitably chant your name in glory. It’s the idea of parallel growth in a startup- as the business grows, you grow with it. Similarly, if your torpid behavior rises to shine, you will be called out sooner than later. The team works together in a startup and if even one person slacks, the rest of the team will wonder why they are working harder than they have to. Since failure is so easy to notice, you will put a lot of thought into your every action.
You will get an adrenaline rush every time you hear ‘We could not have done it without you’.
6. Frugality is a virtue
The ideology of doing more with less is the core value of a startup. According to smallbiztrends, 1 in 3 begin their small business with less than $5,000. Contrary to booze cruises and inter-branch get-togethers, you will learn how to multitask efficiently, how to run campaigns with a smaller budget and how to avoid unnecessary expenses for the business. This frugality will undoubtedly bleed into your own life which will drastically switch your sense of fulfillment from consuming to creating. Your mind will attain happiness in being a part of a team that is trying to contribute to the community and bring a positive change in society. The goal for your entire day will be to create something valuable for others, like this amazing article for your perusal.
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