Poll: do you work for a startup? what has your experience been like?
5 comments
At my 5th startup now, with good pay, normal hours, really interesting technology (not a website).
Startup 1: Decent pay. Extremely long hours and high stress. Fascinating technology. IPO.
Startup 2: Average pay. Very long hours and high stress. Very interesting technology. Very profitable acquisition (right at the end of the dotcom bubble). Acquiring company killed the product line. Go figure.
Startup 3: OK pay. Easy life but dull technology. Dull, dull, dull. Surprisingly, paid off a little years later in an acquisition. Did I say how dull it was?
Startup 4: Good pay. Great technology -- got to build a distributed key/value store before it was cool. Most stressful work experience of my life. Very long hours during this period, but it let up once the product was working. Very good payoff in an acquisition. Acquiring company kept the product going, but it was Dilbert-land, so here I am at startup 5.
Startup 1: Decent pay. Extremely long hours and high stress. Fascinating technology. IPO.
Startup 2: Average pay. Very long hours and high stress. Very interesting technology. Very profitable acquisition (right at the end of the dotcom bubble). Acquiring company killed the product line. Go figure.
Startup 3: OK pay. Easy life but dull technology. Dull, dull, dull. Surprisingly, paid off a little years later in an acquisition. Did I say how dull it was?
Startup 4: Good pay. Great technology -- got to build a distributed key/value store before it was cool. Most stressful work experience of my life. Very long hours during this period, but it let up once the product was working. Very good payoff in an acquisition. Acquiring company kept the product going, but it was Dilbert-land, so here I am at startup 5.
Working for my first startup, I was their first hire 21 months ago and it's been great. A wonderful atmosphere and I've learnt tonnes about web development, entrepreneurship, networking and whatnot.
Good pay and long hours.
Good pay and long hours.
not a good experience
It would be interesting to see how many people on HN currently work at startups, and what their feelings are about it.
If you worked at a startup in the past, what has been your experience? were you burned by it? did it work out well with or without an exit?