Stupid Founders

A lot of folks working at startups seem to be "passionate " about their job. Some of them possibly, truly are. Some foolishly reverse engineer this passion because they're paid really well and they've been doing a good job and it's good personal PR to say "passion". A few reality checks. 1. Your cool Bangalore lifestyle is a result of investment risks/bets taken by VC's . 2. Your salary is as much about the market demand as it is about your " passion " and talent. 3. Startups will generally lower the bar for hiring processes to meet their demand for talent. Why need so much talent? Because the startup needs to spend that 100M$ Series C that just made them a unicorn. That's how they convince the VC to give more money. "We are going to 2x revenue by 2xing our salesforce and buying 10M$ worth of Saas that will increase our productivity by 5x. " And boom ...100M$ transferred into you SVB bank account. 4. You are as replaceable as a garbage bag on your dustbin. The HR is probably flirting with 10 other like you over linkedin. 5. The "values" this startup apparently espouses are mostly nothing but a honey trap and positioning to lure talent. It's great to have a nice tech job that pays well and allows you to gloat on twitter like a techbro but don't let it fool you into getting an inflated sense of entitlement. You're probably living on borrowed time....and money. :)

I’ve applied and interviewed for jobs before but this is the first time I have an interview for a start up, that too with the cofounder. Apart from the role technicalities, what are some questions I should ask the Cofounder?

It's more difficult finding a job as a founder I've realised 1. If your venture is still continuing, they don't trust that you'll work enough at the job. 2. If your venture is shut, extra questions and judgement as to how and why it happened. 3. If your venture is successful and profitable, they'll ask why you want a job if it's going so well. I've never received any preference because of being a founder. On the contrary it's made getting good jobs more difficult. Thankfully I've managed my earnings through my startup, but I feel stuck because I'm not earning as much as I want to, plus I can't work on new things anymore. I would have liked to work on other things but it doesn't seem like I'll be able to get a chance to do that anymore.

Are the Lead - Founder's Office/Chief of Strategy roles worth it for someone with 9y experience in Business Operations? What can be suitable exit options here?

As the title suggests, I often wonder what is the natural progression for people who join startups in Chief of Staff or even Founder's office roles? Do they move to a specialized vertical internally? Or do they move to other startups in CoS roles? Or they do their own venture (I like to believe this is still less likely). Have this thought because a lot of Tier 1 MBA, MBB consultant profiles have been moving to these roles and it really makes me wonder what path would the careers of these top talents take?

To all people who have switched from conventional corporate careers like consulting, banking etc. to a founder's office role How has your experience been? What worked/ didn't work? What do you think is a long term play here? What should one consider before switching? Do mention the stage and industry. TIA!

I feel like this is a general problem that people who join startups in really early stages face. They get hired to do a function, then once the startup picks up, someone more senior gets hired and they’re practically demoted. This is happening third time to me, but still haven’t figured how to deal with it. The first time, someone from Stanford got hired and I felt really insecure about it. We got along pretty well but I couldn’t take that we were of the same age and this person was managing me despite me being around in the company for longer. That person left, my function was changed as well and again after a year, I was layered by another person. I just joined a new company four months ago and feel like the same thing is about to happen. I know they’re hiring someone. Makes me feel anxious about how I’ll lose ownership of things I’ve been doing and I haven’t even gotten the chance to prove myself yet. Do I just wait it out? Or talk to the founders about it? I understand where they come from, they do what’s best for the company. But I feel like I should look out for myself as well.

Recently, I gave an interview at this early startup in Bangalore. It consisted of 5 rounds. - The first four rounds were technical, design, and assignment rounds which went well. I answered all the questions fairly well and the interviewer was happy knowing the answer. - The fifth round was with the CEO - Now this was the turning point. He was more concerned about my personal situation. He asked questions like, where I live, where is my hometown, if WFO is okay for me (I was working remotely in my current company ), and where is your dad ( I said he was no more and that turned off the CEO of a company), how will you keep my mother in BLR, why your mom not living with your siblings?. And I was like "WTF man".the only technical question he asked -> "Have you ever hacked a system in your recent days?". 😂😂 After wasting more than 14 hours in the process I received a rejection mail without any feedback. Message to recruiter - if you are more concerned about the personal situation of the candidate, please conduct a preliminary round for that.

Not surprised. They have a shitty model. Probably going to shut this FY or next unless they turn things around 180 degrees and fast. Similar case for others they've mentioned in the article as their competition. https://inc42.com/buzz/exclusive-revenue-based-financing-platform-velocity-lays-off-around-14-workforce/