If you like the current team/culture/growth prospects - its a difficult choice to make

Honestly, depends on the risk appetite you have. If you are okay with things being uncertain in the medium term - it can be super rewarding to work at an early stage startup which you find exciting 

One word of advice - definitely talk to current employees, ex employees etc to get a good sense of how they are as people before making the switch (provided there is good enough runway)

All the best!

That’s really helpful, thank you so much

Marketing Associate

Corporate Strategist

It's up to you where you want to see yourself ,you shouldnt be asking these kind of questions where no one has more data than you.

Data engineer

Hi folks, I wanted to know your opiion, I’m a graphic designer at a mid stage startup where i have been working for past 1.5 yrs and now i have got job offer to be in founding team for branding an...

Welcome to News Discussion's Private Community

Hi folks,
I wanted to know your opiion, I’m a graphic designer at a mid stage startup where i have been working for past 1.5 yrs and now i have got job offer to be in founding team for branding and marketing (which i have good experience in both) of a early stage startup which is already funded, product is good and so are founders. Should i do it?

Mid stage startup or early stage startup

Mid stage startup or early stage startup- Grapevine

Welcome to Software Engineers's Private Community

which one would be better to join and how to evaluate:

 fairly old startup (~10 years) with extremely competent folks (Top IITs) VS 2 year old startup in Seed Stage with friendly team but team size <10

getting similar comp but much higher stocks in the seed stage. extremely confused because I think it’ll be similar work life balance in both. don’t know if it’s right time to take risk so early in my career (my YOE: <1)

I also think the work might be hectic in the first than the second. learning curve might be more in the first. from another standpoint, the first company is much more well recognised and more "stable"

also- for folks who have been in the job for a while, how important would it be to stay close to your home eventually? do you feel lonely in cities away from home?

sometimes I feel I should go for stability and other time I feel it’ll be fine at max the early startup will give me atleast one year experience so very confused

Need Help: Mid Stage vs Early Stage Company

Software Developer

My background: 2024 grad, intern at an startup in Bengaluru, internship extended for 3 months recession is the reason told, no chance of fte.

Now, getting an offer from a startup. Team of 15-16 people. Pre seed stage startup. Will be building product from scratch. Lots of learning. 
Offering decent hike and since i m part of first team...getting small equity too.

Should I join this offer?

I m confused. But also thinking...it is risky but a lot to learn and growth potential is v high.

Tell what do u guys think??

Need help guys

Hello grapevines!
Need your help/opinion here.
I work for a big corp. ~6YOE. 48L.

The work culture here seems a bit off. Constant pressure to compete and snatch the work and prove oneself. Chaos is being glorified. Onsite team is unresponsive and hiding information. Asking for a KT is being judged upon(expectation is apparently to read through the code). Everyone is trying to earn brownie points by impressing the manage because no one seems to know what to work upon. Technical ability is being looked down upon in the name of domain knowledge.

I switched recently to upskill and grow, but seems like it was a wrong choice.

I’m looking for early stage startups to switch to. I know the current market situation is bad, but I’d take the risk as long as I’m getting to expose myself to good problem statements and less bullshit.

Looking to join early stage startups

Software Engineer

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

I recently worked at a startup and it was terrible. 

To be honest, I still worked at one of the better ones but it just sucked. 

Some of the clear downsides I see 

- Survival mode leads to chaos. You can be treated anyway and asked to leave whenever  even though you left big opportunities to be here 
- Brand loss to find next job (Big problem)
- Trying to make you feel unworthy(Doesn't bother me but I have seen people lose self confidence)
- Loss of opportunity to build real skills like building sustainable teams for the long run

I think over all working at a startup especially early teams is a losing proposition. Do it only if -
 - you know the founders/team well 
- you know the industry and market well and it is a bet you personally believe in
- you are secure enough in life that if you go back to your job, you will easily get employed 


For middle class kids, startups are the worst bets one can take.

Working at startups is terrible

Product Designer

Welcome to Office Gossip's Private Community

I am Interning at a very early stage startup in the Growth Team. My stipend is ₹15,000 p/m and the work is decent - community mgmt, content, product gamification & market research. It’s a pre-seed startup so sometimes I feel lack of resources are putting a cap on my abilities to execute. Though, the founder has assured that we’re close to raising pre seed. I am pretty good friends with the Founder and I’ve met him a few times.
Now, coming to the main part of problem - I casually applied for an Internship in a early stage startup but the team is sorted. They have funds and their founding team is super experienced. Stipend offered is 2x of what I’m getting.
I was wondering If I should opt for that? Or, keep my head down and work for the same startup, ignoring the money aspect? Pls lmk folks.

Optimise for Work or Money?

Founder

Is there enough upside to starting your own product vs having a good stable job which pays very very well?

I don't really want to do 14 hour work days where I'm building a product while working in the company also.

During these times (tech industry recession), is there a good enough upside?

How risky is it to start a startup vs having a good stable job?

So, I am an analytics guy with almost 5.5 YoE under my belt. My latest transition was to Phonepe that I made this year (feeling shitty here already, given the kind of work creating almost no impact)
I saw a post on LinkedIn where the CEO of this startup recently raised some pre-seed funding (~1.5mn). Since I was following them for almost 6-7 months before this, I reached out to the founder on LinkedIn. 
We first had a virtual call where we got to know each other and after that discussion, he called me over to his place where we further talked about the idea, the scope and the future while also discussing what I could bring to the table. Post that, we met again, and this time with the other co-founder who deep-dived a slight bit into the tech stack that I had worked on.
It seems that all is going well, but the founder, in the first face to face meeting told me that for the time being (for almost the next 3-4 months), he'll be able to pay me a monthly amount which is less than half of my current in hand pay, post which it'll be reviewed and adjusted accordingly. How do I negotiate this now? Also, since the team size is super small (only 5 full time folks and one customer support part timer), how do I negotiate on what equity I take (looking for a benchmark number here)?

Joining an early stage startup - Need guidance

Analyst

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

Should I work at well-named startups or companies to work at (eg: CRED, Infosys, etc) with less pay?

Or Should I work at unknown startups or companies (eg: early-stage startups or local companies) with higher pay? (x2 the salary here).

Note: For the above, the experience & designation are the same.

The question is related to future work prospects does working at we'll name brands help me get higher pay in the future?

Help me

I've 3 yoe, currently working in a very small startup as full-stack dev. Company's revenue is declining from Q4 last year.

Every month layoffs are happening in each team. Last week, a dev was laid off from my team.

No hike till now, working here from last 1.5 years. Although, got performance bonus twice.

I want to work on a few ideas, tried to work on weekends but it led to burn out and started affecting my health, suffered from mental fatigue.

Please suggest.

Work on own startup vs switch to another startup

I have 2 job offers in hand and now am a bit confused. Need your advice on decision-making,

1st offer - Jaipur location - investing and trading company, offering me an Equity Research Analyst role with a profit-sharing in the new business division which they are developing.

2nd offer - Bangalore-based startup, recently raised $550k, has 18 months of runway, the current scale is low.. they are offering me mixed roles - 50% of the time will go into Social Media and Content, 30% in Business and 20% in Finance. ESOPs will be based on 6-8 months of performance.

Now I have 2 career paths in mind:

1) I want to do CFA and get into the core finance side... it might also lead me to the VC, PE, or IB side.

2) Startup - I have done startup in the past but failed. I want to do startup again but currently want to join a good startup where I can learn from experienced people.

I don't know how I should go about deciding b/w these 2 career paths.

If you were in my shoes, how would you make a decision?

Have 2 job offers - Confused to choose one

Equity Research

Absolutely sad to see the state of the startups, most of them.
I am a founder myself, and this is a post with equal disappointment with myself as much as it is for anyone else who relates.
Look at all these companies that have raised shit tons of capital, and now make a fraction of money that has been invested in them.
The raised money is spent on outsized, non business sense making acquisition costs, only to keep repeating it till the tap runs dry.
Then when all stakeholders get bored, the service quality plummets, the employees are fired and whole sectors are admonished as being bad.

But, my question is, which sector where large sums of money was invested in early days have come out with flying colours. Fucking nothing !
Edtech, proptech, agritech, ecommerce etc. etc. etc. kuch bhi nahi. 

Is there any sector where a startup which has raised in the 100s of millions in the first 5 years have actually built a sustainable business at any scale ?
Then scaling down, isse acha, scale slowly.
The worst part of this whole drama, is pushing the innovation wheel backward and destroying customer sentiment.

Isse acha, raise less money inititally, build slowly, and only scale when the market is ready. Artifical growth makes no sense, unless you have a treasure chest that shall never run out.
Even in that case, spend the money on assets and not on random acquisition costs, direct or indirect.

As founders, let's do better, nahi ?

Rant or is it ?

I am working in a Pre Seed GenAI Startup (2020 Founded) as Head of Engineering (Team of 20 with 5-6 in Engineering, No CTO) 

It's been 3.5 years (3yrs Full Time + 6mon Internship) Previously it is in EdTech now in GenAI Space 

My CTC is 8 LPA + 0.45% ESOPs (10-12L in 25cr valuation). 
Skills: Nodejs, Nextjs, Monorepos, MongoDB, AWS, Serverless

1-2yrs ago we were thinking about scaling the tech team, etc but then that EdTech model started failing and then we went to a war time after that we pivoted currently also we are burning money revenue is there but very less (25% of the expense)

I was of the view that I want to lead teams and scale products That's why I was there in the team It can be the case tomorrow if we scale 

but Now I am confused whether I should switch my job and or stick with the startup maybe the startup grow tomorrow or a big VC fund us to scale (as I have ESOPs) or it will just be a waste of time or opportunity cost

Please guide 🙏 Anyone with a similar startup experience would really appreciate your help 🙏

Need Career Guidance in Tech (Switch or Not?)

I am 34, BU Head at mid size startup, 1Cr+ CTC and 3Cr ESOP. Tier 1 MBA+Engg. Still 5yrs away from financial freedom. 
Startup founders who have taken similar jump what would say? Was it worth it? 
If yes, any tips on finding start up ideas.

Hifi job or start own startup?

Sales Leader

I have 8 years of experience working as a software Engineer, i worked for 3 startups in these 8 years, Now I am planning to switch and I have 2 offers one from a seed stage start-up and one from Faang like company. What should I choose. I am more into front end development, pay in startup is 10% less which is not a concern for me. I like working in startups, my only concern is how it will affect me in the long term maybe after 5-10 years.

Help me decide Startup vs Faang like company.

I'm currently a SWE intern at a Series A startup (loss making) and they have offered me a full-time role. They have 2 years of runway.

I also have an offer from a very recently funded seed stage startup (pre revenue) with the same runway. It is a team of 13 people.

As a fresh grad, considering similar pay and growth opportunities, which one should I join?

Good time to join an early stage startup as a fresher?

I will go first -


It’s hectic as hell, but if you are passionate about the problem that specific startup is solving- it is really rewarding and exciting. But that’s just my opinion not everyone feels the same way about crazy work schedules and WLB which early stage startups tend to have . 

Please share your thoughts and experiences!

What do you all think of early stage startups?

Growth Manager

Startup 1:
28 fixed
2 jb
2 retention
2lakh esops vested over 2 years
Location: gurgaon, wfo

Startup 2:
28 fixed
2 retention
7.5 lakh esops vested over 4 years
Location: Bangalore, wfh initially, wfo after few months

Very unsure about which one to choose, the offers look very similar to me.
Startup 1 has a probation of 3 months as well.
Current TC: 23

Offer evaluation

I am in my early twenties-I have an offer from top tier VC. My heart is in building, I want to be a part of a 0 to 1 but not able to find an exciting startup! What would you do in my place ? 
Presently in a consulting firm - 2 years in!

Help me choose

The title speaks for itself.

As a fresher, should I focus only on developing my experience or should I care about funding, number of employees and all that stuff?

By the way this startup is a part of YC.

Working at a Pre-Seed or Seed stage startup?

Data Analyst

I am currently interviewing for a role that really excites me. The product and the problem excites me too. 

The option is to take a pay cut or go in on equity. 
How do I negotiate my way through this? 
What are the important questions to be asked? 
How do I ascertain that I am not cheated on with fair remuneration?

Mid stage startup or early stage startup

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