How do people climb up/become more important in startups as employees?
Hi All, what can help me join an early stage startup and grow up to the top close to the founders within a year? I want to be in the middle of the action Has anyone here done it before?
MoonLightBright
Stealth
6 months ago
If they have the right culture then showing excellency in your role, helping out others in the team, having opinions on decisions taken (not just for the sake of it) should help you get closer to the decision makers.
Remember that at an early stage startup, everything revolves around the product, and you will be rewarded for aligning with that.
Speaking from experience, you will be involved in "the action" in a team of 30 people either way
Thanks for the answer. This is what I’m hoping for. I want to be involved in the action and show some quick wins and make impact so that I’m noticed and not lost in the noise.
It’s important I do well at this role as I have FOMO about leaving Amazon
MoonLightBright
Stealth
6 months ago
Don't worry, you'll have a lot of fun building the product. It'll be a different experience, lots of iterating, lots of responsibility, big wins and losses.
You'll learn a lot as long as the founders foster a good culture
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I work at Amazon
But I’m considering joining an in person startup with 24 people. I will be the 25th or so employee
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samosa
Stealth
6 months ago
People who actually care about the product, relate to the business and don't work just for the money. Also lick few asses.
Qwerty2398
Stealth
6 months ago
By working 24X7 for peanuts. If they even suspect you being not satisfied with the pay or crib about WLB, its game over.
RapchikBidu
Stealth
6 months ago
This is the most realistic answer. Even if you’re good at what you do, you’d be cast aside if you seem like a 8 hour work, then fuck off kinda guy.
Sad, but true.
Not really. That's totally a wrong advice in my opinion.
Working 24*7 is detrimental to productivity as well as the employee's health. No sane leaders will ever want that.
But yes, in an early stage startup, deadlines are something that is really important and it wouldn't be a typical 9-5 job. One should only choose such a job if they believe in the idea/product and don't mind doing more than what the job asks you to do! And you would do it without thinking it as a job even for less pay simply because you believe in it and you want the product to succeed
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Align yourself with the vision of the founders. Understand what exactly they are building and what their target market is. Actively take part in key decision meetings and propose your ideas and solutions which you think will add something useful or solve existing problem, thereby increasing the value and UX of the product
Align yourself with the vision of the founders. Understand what exactly they are building and what their target market is. Actively take part in key decision meetings and propose your ideas and solutions which you think will add something useful or solve existing problem, thereby increasing the value and UX of the product
Thank you! This makes a lot of sense. I’ll try to take part in meetings. Tho this is something I am not great as as I tend to be a bit weak on the communication side. My dev skills are pretty good tho
You don't really need to be super vocal or extrovert pro max ultra. Just need to come out of the "I'm a dev" mindset and towards "I'm a dreamer who does what it takes" mindset. It helps you think like a user while thinking like the owner of the product. Helps you take a balanced business decision on how you can have max profits to run the business while keeping customers happy.
Focus on being Top 1% of
Level 1 - Skill
Level 2 - Communication
Level 3 - Leadership
Level 4 - Leadership + Strategy + Execution
Years of experience doesn’t matter.
AgnosticServer
Stealth
6 months ago
Background -
- 2015: Software Engineer, mid-level startup
- 2024: CTO, emerging idea.
(took me 9 years, and 5 startups to reach here)
I'm not bragging, but because I might be a good candidate to answer this very question.
Easy Way (but will be of no use in the long run) -
Be a SYCHOPHANT (Chaplus/chaatukaar). Suck up to your bosses, be the yes man.
Short Answer -
You can't do this in 1 year, you have to be consistent and patient enough.
Long Answer (Hard but good in the long run)
- Attitude
Never say never, if the task is too difficult, you should be the person doing it. Whatever it is, even if it is way out of your comfort zone (But understand your boundaries, e.g. I can't do Sales if I am a deep core engineer)
- Product Focussed & Result Oriented
You complete your work, things are out in the public, and your work is not done yet. You have to track what worked and what didn't. Be honest, report your findings (RCA, good or bad), and share them with the audience.
Showcases that you are responsible/mature and gives you visibility.
(Surprisingly, very few do this).
- Deliverability
Always deliver more than you are asked to do. That one surprise element that you did extra makes you stand apart from the crowd. It shows you are willing to go that extra mile even when no one is watching.
- Weekends/Weekdays (it doesn't matter) - Ownership
You will have no social life, I am not asking anyone to do this. It's a personal choice and a decision that you will take. But being available almost all the time with a TAT in minutes whatever the time is shows that you are available if there are even the slightest of hiccups.
Show you are reachable when the going gets tough. This will greatly dent your personal life, but this is a choice you have to make.
It also shows your ownership of the product you are building.
(Pagerduty will constantly wake you up at 3 AM in the night).
- Empathy towards your customers/colleagues
Colleagues: Be the person everyone wants to go to when things are going wrong. Be the saviour everyone wants but doesn't deserve. Be the nice person for a change even when it won't give you anything in return.
Customers: Having worked in Healthcare/Fintech, I have learned that customer empathy is extremely important, and it showcases your work.
Summary
This is extremely hard, whatever you do, don't be a SYCOPHANT, it will never work in the long run.
I have seen a lot of highs and lows in the last decade, but I suppose I did it
the right way, took me a long time to reach here, and I keep learning everyday, but these 5 things mentioned above are now engraved in my DNA, and I can't do things any other way.
Best Wishes : )
StupidLadle
Stealth
6 months ago
I can really relate to this.. I've been with this startup for the last one year..its been crazy....you have to be a nice person...and it demands you to be available all the time
Also I'm gonna try working towards things that you mentioned
1. Being present, consistently! The one who is not visible or unavailable will probably be the last in the minds of the manager/co-founders to elevate them.
2. Going beyond your JD and KRA to show that you care about the business and you are ready to own up stuff that you're not expected to. The ones at the top are usually folks who evolved into generalists and not always remained as specialists. They wear multiple hats. A leader is someone who needs to do that.
3. Be a people person. If you don't interact with others, there is very less chance that you're going to be given a people management role (in good culture companies specifically). Going up the ladder means managing people at some point. Many a times the wrong folks get elevated mainly due to their experience and they are bad at managing their reportees when they're handed over a bunch to manage. This shouldn't be the case.
Create more and more value/impact! That's the single most important thing you can do
See where the leaders want the org to go do, deliver impact around that goal
Just invest yourself as much as you can/want to.
(Thats a delicate balance to start with!)
Startups with less number of engineers is a coders’ wet dream 💭
You get a ton of autonomy + you fail fast + you see your diff reflecting to a sizeable number of users immediately. Its a fun ride!
I was the 4th engineer in a startup and owned 3/5 of their products from scratch. No corp has come close to how much fun I had (mind you; I was a proper workaholic too. Did 7 days a week for 2 months on my own accord, to catch up with everyone & establish myself as an entity)
Best way to do this is to make your founders life easy. Take things from their plate and execute it with full ownership and accountability. No need to do it for all the founders, doing it for the one closer to your function would help. Don't hesitate in front of them. If it's an early stage startup, the founders are equals
I'll tell you how it was at Zomato. Work long hours (or atleast pretend to). Be a yes man. Get shit done. There's a reason why the team is so young. Most senior people don't want to deal with the shit. Just be there, most people leave in two years because they cannot handle it. Once you stick around for long enough, you get into the inner circle and then you are golden.
One advice if u are moving from a large conglomerate to a start up is that there is no structure and no JD. You have to be proactive, have strong ownership mindset about everything and should not mind working on anything including design, ops etc which may not be a part of developers job role.
Kamlesh
Stealth
6 months ago
I hired a recent graduate through grapevine few months ago, doing pretty well overall.
Has coding experience. Does ops and comms, product , client management primarily. Worked in an early startup previously as well while still finishing college so knows what it takes to build from scratch. Mostly prompt and available, also pushes team for excellence, mostly not afraid to take on more work.
Took about 2 months to integrate well and start executing and improving things all around. Came with a vision to stay for at least 3-4 years if all goes well and we were also honest about our expectations, runway and scope.
If all goes well, will be completing a year soon. Great long term employee with ESOP potential.
I might get flak for this but i recommend not bothering too much with roles and pay if your vision is aligned and honestly shared with the startup. Haggling over salary because it's the market rate doesn't look good. It's the startup that has to decide how to balance runway and growth, they can afford what they can afford. It's upto you to choose.
I joined a startup that raised a series A round around my joining. WLB excellent and pay was decent, but my career growth was limited and work restricted to one domain while i wanted other domains as well. Boss was upfront and honest, I left on good terms. Started my venture as a side hustle while I was there, they had no qualms and were happy to see it grow as long as it didn't interfere with their work obligations.
I could've been an early employee in a web3 startup that got funded and seems to be doing alright, but my vision wasn't aligned with the founder, plus i didn't trust them enough to execute well. Would've been hellish to stay longer, and my startup grew in the meantime thankfully. Not as much as them, but meaningful work.
Extremely important and difficult to find honest and upfront founders that respect you and your time, plus honour their commitments. Takes a fair amount of luck and skill to find one.
javajack
Student
6 months ago
1) create more dependency on you
2) keep team members in your favour ( like how politicians keep MLAs in favour)
3) own a piece of revenue making component
4) make noise when you achieve small wins, optics are necessary
All of the above is something I have witnessed ( in one leader ) in the last 3 years in a highly profitable startup which has raised decent series A.
Most start-ups are sophisticated lala companies and some things would not change.
So you have to play the game by rules made by practical world!
Solve for the most pressing problems the company is facing - even if it’s ancillary to your domain
Put in genuine hard work. In the long term hard work > pure talent
Truly care for the company. Treat it like it’s yours - in your words and actions. Founders love people who work like entrepreneurs
Lastly - once you’ve settled into the company and proven your worth, have a clear talk with the founder to express what you expect, and be open to what they expect in return.
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