Joining a company that is designed to grow fast early in its life (=startup), gives you unparalleled exposure to situations and decisions that only very few people get to see.
- Level of ownership and responsibility: In an early-stage startup, everyone needs to work on the most crucial problems and activities at that given moment. Often, you will need to make decisions that are far above your pay grade. The frequency and importance of decisions you will work on are unparalleled to any other employment type. You will get the freedom to shape the startup’s agenda, come up with, and implement your own solutions and learn from mistakes with immediate feedback loops.
- Influence on fundamental decisions: Hiring, shaping the product roadmap, making crucial technical or business decisions, fundraising, forming the company culture…these are dimensions that are often reserved for the leadership of a company as their impact will last years. As one of the first employees, you will get to participate in or even own some of these crucial aspects that will together shape the culture of the company. For example, an early-stage engineer can define the technology stack the rest of the company will be built on. An early marketing hire can build the brand from the ground up.
- Growth trajectory and reputation inside the company: If things go well and the startup is growing, it means you did a great job. In the first 12-24 months, you have the ideal stage to demonstrate your ability to learn and grow with the company, giving you the perfect springboard to skip hierarchies you would otherwise need to go through in a corporate environment. Internally, you know the company better than anyone else and become a reliable source of truth for junior and senior colleagues alike.
- Financial upside: Joining as one of the first employees means that your equity package is very attractive. You are receiving a much larger ESOP share to compensate for the larger risk you are taking on by joining early. Furthermore, you benefit from a 100x value increase in company valuation if we were to reach unicorn status. The first 20 employees of a successful startup are very likely to be multi-millionaires once they can liquidate their stake (which partially happens before an exit, e.g. selling secondaries in a future fundraise)
- Career opportunities: Having been part of a successful organization from the very start gives you a unique reputation on the market - because there are simply not a lot of you. Observers understand that your impact as one of a handful of early employees is enormous - every decision that you make and action you take can make the difference between running out of money or getting the company to the next level. This sets you up very well for founding your own company one day or for an attractive leadership role in your next startup adventure.
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💡 Recommended reads:
Read This Before Joining as Employee 1 to 20 at a Startup by Stacy La (employee #3 at Clover Health)
What You Learn at a Startup that Grows from $0 to $7.75 Billion in 2 Years by Dave Schools (employee #8 at Hopin)
First Startup Employees by early employees of various unicorns (Wise, Gousto, GoCardless, etc.)
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