Thread by @LadyAshBorg

Discussing hiring & talent yesterday got me thinking … that there are so many parallels between fundraising, valuation, a founder’s journey & how people build their careers at startups. Folks wanting to join startups or thinking of long term careers here - a thread for you

1 - Play the long game

A majority of the talent I see in the pipeline today, optimize for short term. This is not how it felt even 4 years ago. Today - I rarely see talent come in with a strategy, plan & grow or come in, put in the time & then plot the long game.

Everyone’s optimizing for extra 50K/1L which is HUGE when you’re <10L salary but this could be played very differently if you’re earning more than that or in a situation where a few thousands here & there a month is not going to bring your home crashing. Playing the long = 💵💵💵

2 - How to play the long game - ESOPs

It’s been raining buybacks in the startup world last few mnths. This is not 2010 / '15 where ESOPs didn’t mean anything. Recently had a very senior hire take a massive haircut on salary for a much higher equity. Actively negotiated for it.

I can tell you he's making a killing on the deal in the next few quarters. Actively sell when you have a chance & cash in over time. Wealth creation doesn't happen in one go, make it a long game, with regular payouts, that then get invested in some form again & grow more & more

3 - Study the market - Understand who you are, what the market looks like & clearly claim/optimize for a path. Are you a better version of existing models or a new model? Same for founders & employees. Answer Qs - who are you, who do you want to be, what are likely career paths?

Will you be a brilliant full stack engineer or do you have potential to start as a good one but can pickup quickly & grow into a data engineering role (latter an incredibly scarce resource) and going to grow in demand at an insane pace in the coming years.

Your first 3-4 years are about getting the basics right, learning fundamentals, to swim in the deep end & then grow where you see / mark opportunities. Your 'valuation’ as a stable/trustworthy foundational trustworthy team member changes multi-fold. When you get there - it's

4 - Don’t price yourself out of the market

This is a lesson founders are taught a lot when fundraising. If you’re optimizing for valuation, then you better be confident about not failing & growing at an exponential rate because you’re setting yourself for a down round otherwise

Would you rather steadily grow into a long term game or set yourself for a binary - zero sum game. Answer really is in who you are as a person or what you want. Both could work. But crazy funding cycles often mean lots of pay hikes, those hikes & peaks don’t stay that way forever

When the market normalizes out, which it always does in the long term - what will that do to your career? Where will you be? How many years is it going to take for the larger market to catch up with the edge case scenario you've been living for years?

5 - Optimize for growth - Learn. Grow. Kill. Repeat.

Brilliant talent will always command a premium in the market. But plan in 3 year cycles. Every 3 years, make a leap. Plan, skill & re-skill yourself, prove your growth, get some wins & learn from some losses & make a leap.

Day 0 a startup is valued based on founder profile & potential. With time, it’s less about you & more about your (your biz) growth rate. Same for you as a team member - start with demonstrating hunger & potential & show growth into & beyond that potential in subsequent years

I'll do another session, thread on the top jobs / skills we're seeing in the upcoming decade. But one thing I can say for sure -

All jobs are data jobs. I repeat - ALL JOBS ARE DATA JOBS. Sales Ops, RevOps, CSOps, DeliveryOps, MLOps - go learn about it, get into it.

You don't need a degree to be a good data analyst & know numbers. Whatever you do - remember you need to interpret its outcome in numbers, especially on scale. So whatever you do - go learn how to do some basic data analytics. There's a gazillion jobs coming up in startup land

OK many asking how to optimize cash vs. equity vs. growth ... in DMs as well

https://twitter.com/sk4rn/status/1378240085137616896?s=20

General rule of thumb for freshers - PUT IN THE TIME. PROVE YOURSELF. WAIT. WATCH. LEARN THE MARKET. You need credibility before optionality :) Build a solid base.

If you have choices on where to begin your career - pick the ones that will push you the most. That will challenge you the most. Make you swim in the deep end. Give you more chances to grow. Unless of course the cash situation in your home is paramount. Then do what you have to.

Guys - we'll do a separate thread on freshers vs. experienced folks - how to negotiate, what to look for, what to ask for, how to know / test if a job will give you the growth potential etc at another time in the coming week