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A comment on Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup. Parent comment

Re:Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup by tdumitrescu on Monday November 26, 2018 @12:05PM (#18534777)
I joined a series A startup years ago for none of your "valid" reasons and have never regretted it. It was a company that I already knew of and admired their product, and they had enough traction at that point to offer at least several years' worth of runway/stability ie I didn't have to worry about my job disappearing unexpectedly (at least not more so than any other California job). Work-life balance was always totally fine. I learned a ton right from the start, was able to make a big impact, and worked in the smaller "get stuff done" environment that I prefer over bureaucratic organizations.
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Re:Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup by woolvalley on Monday November 26, 2018 @12:36PM (#18535116)
That is nominally a series A startup, but actually a bootstrapped since series A startup. Big difference.
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Re:Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup by nostrademons on Monday November 26, 2018 @03:04PM (#18536326)
"Bootstrapping" usually refers to funding the company (in the seed stage) without external investment, whether through pre-selling to customers, relying on founders' savings, doing consulting, etc. I think the term you're looking for is "profitable".
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Re:Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup by derefr on Monday November 26, 2018 @03:24PM (#18536478)
Not quite, since a "profitable" investor-backed company is still usually pushed by those investors to seek further investment, whether the company needs it to continue growing or not. (It just needs it to grow to the level that an investor would care about.)

The concept here is closer to "firing your investors" or "buying back your equity", but they haven't necessarily done that yet.

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Re:Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup by nostrademons on Monday November 26, 2018 @03:40PM (#18536606)
If you've got board control after the Series A and are profitable, they have zero leverage over your future decisions.
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Re:Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup by master-litty on Monday November 26, 2018 @12:44PM (#18535213)
Subjective meets subjective. It's the appropriate context. I hope it helps college grads make an informed decision that's right for them.
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Re:Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup by zakm on Monday November 26, 2018 @12:50PM (#18535272)
So do you have some kinda data breakdown on the typical startup, or just other anecdotal experience?
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Re:Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup by dang on Monday November 26, 2018 @03:34PM (#18536559)
The flamey unsubstantive sort of comments you've posted in this thread are just what we're trying to avoid here. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and follow the rules of the site, we'd appreciate it.

HN threads are conversation. Anecdotes are the life blood of conversation. This is an internet forum, not a peer-reviewed journal.

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Re:Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup by decebalus1 on Monday November 26, 2018 @04:17PM (#18536877)
Noted. Thanks. I will quote you on `Anecdotes are the life blood of conversation. This is an internet forum, not a peer-reviewed journal.` in the future, if you don't mind.
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