Ask HN: Should I take a job at a start up?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20201103

by andreimiulescu • 7 years ago

2 1 7 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I got an offer from a start up with 1.5m in funding for about 30% less pay but 5% equity, the total valuation of the start up is 6.5m, should I take the job, I think the idea behind the start up is good, I would be joining as cto and I think the work would be interesting. And if it’s successful in 3.5 years I’d probably make a bit of money. What do you guys think?

onion2k• 7 years ago

And if it’s successful in 3.5 years I’d probably make a bit of money.

Assuming this is about money rather than the fun and freedom you'll get at a startup, work out what you can do to improve the chances of success.

If your ideas are things like "write better code" or "increase test coverage" then you shouldn't join. Startups don't succeed because the code is higher quality (they sometimes fail because code is lower quality, but that's a different problem.)

If your ideas are around "promote the product by using my extensive list of contacts who would directly benefit from it" then join up, but realise your job won't be writing clever code, and the chance of that 5% being worth more than the difference in salary you'd make somewhere else are still very low.