Early-stage startup employee

What is this path?

This path involves trying to join a rapidly growing tech startup within the first 100 or so employees.

Ideally, this would be a startup that works in a field relevant to the problems you think are most pressing.

AI applications startups seem especially promising right now, since they let you learn about AI and how to apply it to tackle real-world problems — one of the most valuable skills. Note this is different from a company pushing forward the frontier of AI, which is more risky, and which we discuss separately.

Most commonly, the roles available are either (i) product development (engineers, designers, and product management), (ii) sales and marketing, or (iii) management and organisation building.

Most of the best jobs are in large tech hubs. The San Francisco Bay Area is the clear leader, followed by New York or London, followed by LA, Boston, Beijing, Shanghai, Paris, Seoul, or Tokyo.

Why do this job?

Being an early employee at a startup is one of the more promising options for career capital, because:

• In small organisations, you can work on many kinds of projects, giving you a generalist organisation-building skill set that’s useful for many social impact projects (which tend to be smaller, new organisations rather than huge corporations).
• If the organisation is also growing, you can usually take on more responsibility more quickly because so many new things need to be done and there aren’t many more experienced people around to do it. This means you can learn a lot fast and take on responsibilities that will be impressive to future employers, like managing people or new projects.
• In small organisations, it’s easier to see the bottom-line effects of your actions, which also accelerates learning through real-world feedback.
• If the startup is in an area of technology relevant to a pressing global problem (e.g. biotech), you also get to learn about and make connections relevant to that technology. Working in an AI applications startup gives you a credential in the AI world, and teaches you the skill of using AI to tackle real-world problems, which could be one of the most valuable going forward.
• If the startup succeeds, you gain a good credential in the tech world.

We wouldn’t typically recommend doing this job over working at an impactful organisation right away — which can give you more useful connections as well as immediate impact. But if you need to gain more career capital before getting a job like that, this can be one of the best options (and given the issues we think are most pressing, more promising than common alternatives like consulting).

Some for-profit tech startups can also have a positive impact, for example:

• Recently, there have been some startups focused on AI alignment research, like Goodfire
• Using AI for epistemics and better decision making could be another interesting area for for-profit initiatives
• Wave has saved the world’s poorest people billions of dollars in transaction fees
• Startups developing meat alternatives to help end factory farming.

In general, for-profit models can reach a much bigger scale than nonprofits, so even if they’re less focused on the most pressing priorities, they can have a comparable amount of impact.

This can also be a good option for earning to give — at median, your compensation will probably be a little bit less than working at a large company, but if you can identify a startup that’s more likely to succeed than average, your equity stake could be a worth a lot.

Compared to large tech company jobs, these roles are also good for people who like more autonomy, moving fast, and a culture that’s more focused on results rather than office politics (though of course there will still be politics!).

What are some points against this path?

• There’s a huge amount of variation within this path, and many startups are in complete shambles. Statistically, many will fail and go broke. This option is most promising if you can find a great team you can learn a lot from, and ideally when you can identify a rocket ship. It also requires a significant tolerance for risk — you need to be OK with the company failing after a couple of years. Finding the best roles usually requires having a good network in the industry.

• If you can join an organisation that’s an important player in tackling a pressing global problem right away, like the organisations listed here, then you can likely achieve a good level of skill development in that role (especially if your eventual goal is to have an impact), while also building a more relevant network and having an immediate impact too. Tech startup jobs are most promising when you can’t get a directly relevant job right away (unless the startup is truly on a breakout trajectory, in which case it could be competitive due to the sheer influence and earning power it’ll give you).

• Although less stressful than being a founder, being an early startup employee is typically more stressful and involves longer hours than working at an established company.

• If you work at an AI applications company, even one not working on pushing forward the frontier, you could still indirectly contribute to accelerating the arrival of transformative AI. Typically, your effect on this will be relatively modest, so we think these roles are still worth considering. But it’s worth thinking carefully about the ethics of the choice — see more discussion in our profile on frontier AI companies. We do think it’s important not to build uncritical hype around AI, which contributes to the general speed of the industry, which increases AI’s huge downside risks.

• The best jobs are usually in large tech hubs, and you might not want to move to one of those.

• As discussed below, average financial returns are much lower than founding, and may not be higher on average than comparable jobs at large companies.

• If you want to go into policy, it may be better to enter directly, and areas like law or consulting are stronger contenders. (Though working at a startup still gives you generalist ‘getting things done’ and entrepreneurial skills that can be very helpful in policy too.)

How can I find a good startup job?

1. The best jobs are typically found through referrals, so speak to people you know and ask what opportunities they know about.
2. Start doing side projects that you can demonstrate to employers to show you can do the work.
3. Consider moving to a tech hub and attending events in order to meet more people. You could start by visiting for a few months as an experiment.

4. You can also make cold applications: see our list of places to find startup jobs, of which Wellfound is the largest.

   We also sometimes feature these jobs on our job board.

When you have options on the table, most importantly, look for roles where:

• You get to work with inspiring, competent, high-integrity people — this is one of the biggest drivers of your learning and future opportunities.
• The company is growing rapidly, and attracting top tier investors and talent.
• You’re reasonably aligned with its mission — and minimally don’t think it’s harmful. And, as a bonus, it will help you learn about an important technology given your view of which problems are most pressing.

The position you start in is probably less important, since roles are usually more fluid and it’s possible to advance quickly.

If you can’t get a good job right away, then look for other ways to build relevant skills and connections in the industry, such as working at a large tech company, or going to graduate school at a university known for entrepreneurship.

How can you find a startup that’s focused on doing good?

Within the problems we focus on, we sometimes list these on our job board.

Beyond that, we’re not currently aware of any good directories, however, you can find some leads by looking at which startups have been funded by technology investors who care about social impact, such as Lionheart Ventures, Mythos Ventures, the OS Fund, Founders Fund, Obvious Ventures, Bethnal Green Ventures, Omidyar, Mustard Seed, DBL, Social+Capital Partnership, and Khosla Ventures.

What are the key differences compared to founding a startup?

• Typically, you’ll receive an equity stake worth 0.1% to 1% of the company, compared to 5–50% for a founder, and most of your compensation will come via salary. This means you have less financial risk but also lower expected returns. In fact, the financial returns are likely to be similar to working at a large company on average, and only higher than that if you can pick especially successful startups.
• You’re playing a less central role in the company, so you’ll probably also have less impact on its trajectory. However, because founding is more glamorous than being an early employee, some think there’s a shortage of good early employees compared to founders, and many startups find it extremely hard to hire.
• If you found a startup, you’re tied to the company for 3–10 years until exit or failure. If you’re an employee, it’s much easier to leave. Though it’s not as easy as at big companies, since in a startup you won’t be easily replaced. This again lowers your risk, because you can keep changing companies until you find one that takes off. It also means you can do the job for just a couple of years to gain career capital.
• The personal costs are much lower. Founding can be all consuming and is usually described as an emotional rollercoaster. Being an early employee involves more autonomy, responsibility, and excitement than a job at a larger firm, but less than founding.

See our separate profile on founding a tech startup.

Who should join a startup rather than found?

• If you can’t come up with a promising idea and cofounder, then it’s better to try to join a startup as an early employee.
• It’s also better to be an early employee if you don’t want to make the personal sacrifices needed to found or lock yourself in for 3–10 years.
• If you get the opportunity to join a startup that’s taking off, you may have greater earnings and impact by joining it than founding your own, e.g. the 100th employee at Dropbox still made about $10m, equivalent to a 10% stake in a $100m company. See a more in-depth version of this argument.

Want one-on-one advice on pursuing this path?

If you think this path might be a great option for you, but you need help deciding or thinking about what to do next, our team might be able to help.

We can help you compare options, make connections, and possibly even help you find jobs or funding opportunities.

APPLY TO SPEAK WITH OUR TEAM

Further reading

• Found a tech startup
• Startup employees don’t earn more
• Software and tech skills
• Should you work at a frontier AI company?
• Product manager in tech
• Every article we’ve tagged with startup early employee