Shocking similarities between startups and big companies

Hi everyone,

In this newsletter, we take stock of career lessons from the Shameless Careers episode “Working for Google vs. Rocketship Startup.” In this episode, I interviewed Ekaterina Kalygina, who has experienced both ends of the employment spectrum—working for a fast-growing Series A startup, Unity (which eventually exited), and working for a large firm, Google. As a result, she is in a great position to compare the two experiences

Here is my - shocking - takeaway from the episode. Going into the interview I thought there will be close to zero similarities between a fast scaling startup and a big organisation. I was wrong. My takeaway: the criteria for selecting a startup are very similar to the criteria for selecting a team within a bigger company.

Criterion 1: Selecting an A-team. When you choose a startup, the quality of the people is one of the most decisive factors in whether the startup will take off (to quote Ekaterina: "Think like a venture capitalist—they would rather invest in an A-team with a B-idea than a B-team with an A-idea"). Similarly, I’d argue that the quality of your team within a larger organisation can have a big impact on your career prospects—your morale, learning curve, opportunities for growth, and the levels of sponsorship you receive depend heavily on the team you work in. In my view, there is no such thing as “working for a big organisation” - in practice, you are always operating within the microcosm of a specific team.

Criterion 2: Ability to learn new skills that may be useful on a strategic horizon. In the interview, Ekaterina said that when you choose to work for a startup, you shouldn’t bet on a big financial reward (based on statistics, many startups fail—you can do the best due diligence ever, but there is still no guarantee the startup will take off). Thus, working for a startup must be a strategic decision. For example, can you gain skills that may be useful in the future? (For instance, if you want to run your own company, working for a startup is the closest you can get while still being employed.) Can this serve as a stepping stone to something else? Similarly, when it comes to careers in larger organizations, sometimes it makes sense to make a horizontal move and forego a salary rise in order to acquire skills that may be useful later on.

Criterion 3: Assessing the business model. This criterion is self-explanatory for a startup—i.e., you need to conduct due diligence: has the startup found market traction, is it growing, is it profitable, etc.? At first glance, it may seem completely irrelevant when choosing a team in a larger company. I’d argue the opposite: the more commercially relevant your future team is, the more career opportunities you’ll have. When I say "commercially relevant," I mean that (1) the team should be linked to a fast-growing product line, and (2) the team should be able to articulate (and, to the extent possible, quantify) its impact on increasing sales or the bottom line. What’s the best way to find out? First, get an industry-wide perspective—what’s actually growing or is expected to grow? Then ask the team you are interviewing with whether it is exposed to these growth areas and how it is articulating its commercial impact.

Before we wrap up, let’s briefly discuss the differences between startups and larger organisations. In short, according to Ekaterina, working for early-stage companies entails more risk (the business may fail), more financial upside (if the business takes off), more personal impact, less clearly defined roles, less predictability, and (likely) less work-life balance (due to under-resourcing). The later the stage you join (Series C, D, or larger companies), the more this dynamic reverses. Of course, it’s difficult to generalise—there are always company-, team-, and role-specific nuances. For example, when Ekaterina was at Google, she chose to work for a more nascent, growing department rather than an established business because the dynamic there was more startup-like.

That's it for today—no concluding existential thoughts from me this time around! (I can already hear your sigh of relief... Don't worry, I'll have more to say next time :D)

Be Shameless!

Best,

Varia