Are you cut out for a startup?

Start-ups always have a buzz of excitement around them.  They offer the possibility of creating something new, of making a difference in terms of how things are done, of new ideas uncluttered with dogma of the past, of the excitement of discovery much like a baby’s gurgle of excitement on seeing something new.  Startups suggest optimism, resurgence, quest—much like how ancient discoverers would have felt in embarking upon searches for new lands.  They offer the prospect of lucrative reward, of partaking riches one would not normally expect, of experiencing El Dorado and other fabled lands of milk, honey and virgins—or as one would say in management speak, “of returns non-linear in nature”.

So if startups are so exciting and potentially offer so much, what’s the catch?   What kinds of places are startups really to work in, and what are the pros and cons of working in such places?  Are all types of individuals equally suited to working in these environments?  Should one give up an “established” career path to work in a startup?  This blog attempts to answer these questions based on my experiences in working in multiple startups—or as market researchers would state, based on a sample size of one.  If you are looking at a finely researched article with hundreds of pages of charts and statistics, with references to books that you have neither read nor will, written by multiple co-authors who take up the first half of the book in Acknowledgements, please go to Google and you will find plenty.  If you’d like to read an individual’s opinion and have a chuckle or two while doing so, keep reading.

Startups are fundamentally about overwhelming belief in what is sought to be achieved.  Possibly the best example of a startup that has defined the capabilities of what human beings can do is NASA, with its demonstrated ability to not only send humans to space, but to bring them back safely as well—many times over.  The word “No” does not exist in startup vocabulary; it is replaced with “If not this, then what else?”  I believe this is fundamental to the raison d’etre of a startup; if the objective was to find a reason NOT to do something, then why bother with a startup in the first place?  This behooves the question as to therefore what kinds of people should work in startups—by definition, they have to be optimists, people who are willing to look at failure straight in the eye and acknowledge its contribution in their search for success.  Every setback is therefore motivational in nature, as it serves to provide another reason to overcome it.

Secondly, startups are about chaos.  Artists need a new canvas to draw, writers need a new page of paper (much easier in Word it must be said), politicians need a new issue to stir emotions.  It’s no different in companies.  Creating something new first starts with unlearning—or as it were, emptying one’s cup in order to refill it.   The unlearning phase can be trying to say the least, as established norms and ways of doing things (or processes for the management-minded) are questioned, and questioned again.  Every assumption that people have grown comfortable with—from how people are hired to how financing is raised to how new products are developed to what kinds of sales channels should be used—has to be debated in the context of the startup.  There are no holy cows here, so there is no place for hierarchy or ego.  Everyone is the CEO and the janitor at the same time.  The org structure does not exist nor should it—the last thing a startup needs is bureaucracy.

Thirdly, startups are about pressure.  If the chaos inherent in startups paints a picture of a corporate version of Woodstock and the swinging sixties, nothing could be further from the truth.  Startups deal with questions of fiscal existence every single day, from how to pay salaries (that time of the month again, no wonder the CFO is irritable) to how to manage accounts payable (time to take the Bank Manager for drinks) to how to deal with shareholder expectations (don’t they have anyone else to go after).  The need for fiscal discipline means that the drivers of performance—revenues and costs—are always under a microscope, leading to a high pressure environment for all people involved.  There are no free lunches, and no 12^th men in startups—every individual has a key role to play and everyone’s contribution reflects on the overall performance.  For high performers, startups offer an excellent opportunity to be noticed and rewarded; for others—well, the pain doesn’t last long.

Finally, startups are about teamwork.  It’s amazing how well people work together when they deal with other people, not departments or designations.  There are no silos and no corporate watchdogs, which pretty much means there is no bureaucracy.  Email functions as it is supposed to—crisp, short and without any “cc”s.  Phone calls are rare and face to face is what usually happens, which is still the best way of getting things done (unless you are in different locations, wherein video is pretty useful and getting better).  Celebrations are plentiful (though inexpensive in nature) as morale needs to be kept high, and every opportunity for recognizing success is taken.  Contradictory as it seems, startups foster a “we” mentality despite the strong focus on individual performance.

So what kind of people do startups look for?  Optimists, team players, people with a passion to get things done, those willing to go the extra mile, those who don’t take no for an answer, those inspired by Gandhi and Churchill and yes, Steve Jobs, those who want to question the status quo and explore uncharted territories… the list goes on.  Sounds a bit like you, doesn’t it; or at least the you that you would like to be?  Doesn’t reading this quicken the pulse, and conjure up feelings of breaking the shackles and letting go?  Doesn’t the boss just appear to be a Neanderthal, and your colleagues drones? Doesn’t the daily routine appear imposed, perhaps even contrived to justify one’s existence? If your answer is Yes to these questions, then you are cut out to be in a start-up.  As for me, keep reading my blog, it’s a startup as well.