Re:Ask HN: Startup vs. big corp fresh out of college?
by ChuckMcM on Friday July 17, 2015 @01:16PM
(#9903773)
I expect that expectations will vary so its really a personal decision. When I came out of college I was interested in starting my own company but I wanted the company I built to grow into a big company, and to that end I wanted some experience working at a big company to understand a bit about where the destination was.
I've noticed that many people work for companies and don't bother to invest the time in figuring out how the company works from top to bottom, how do people pay, where does the money go, how do you decide what to spend it on, or how much to spend, how do you decide between path A and path B. All the very real decisions that are made and how they are made, how do you have 20 people make a decision that they are all signed up to support? How do you know if your company is getting bigger, smaller, or suffering.
A startup, at the initial stages, is a handful of people, its a group project to achieve a singular goal. It isn't really a company at that point. When it gets traction and needs to become a company, what is missing? what is needed first? What is less important? All of those things you learn at a company which is already established.
When I came to the valley I joined Intel a "big" corporation at the time (which was better than my other choice Western Digital :-) I spent a couple of years trying to figure out how the company was put together as a system. Then I joined a late stage startup (Sun Microsystems) and worked there while it went from a "small company" (something bigger than your basic startup but I still got to know a lot of the company) to a "large company" the first billion dollar a year in revenue, and on to a run rate of $5B. Then I went back and started a company with some friends and we took it from the 5 of us to product launch and into the second product before we were acquired. And then back to a larger company to figure out some of the things I couldn't quite figure out in growing a company how folks had got there (mostly around sales to enterprises and getting the business model right).
The point being that my career to this point has really never changed its objective, which is to learn how to build and grow a great technology company. And helping me learn has been a number of friends and companies over the years.
So your objectives will tell you whether or not you should start at a big company or a startup.
I've noticed that many people work for companies and don't bother to invest the time in figuring out how the company works from top to bottom, how do people pay, where does the money go, how do you decide what to spend it on, or how much to spend, how do you decide between path A and path B. All the very real decisions that are made and how they are made, how do you have 20 people make a decision that they are all signed up to support? How do you know if your company is getting bigger, smaller, or suffering.
A startup, at the initial stages, is a handful of people, its a group project to achieve a singular goal. It isn't really a company at that point. When it gets traction and needs to become a company, what is missing? what is needed first? What is less important? All of those things you learn at a company which is already established.
When I came to the valley I joined Intel a "big" corporation at the time (which was better than my other choice Western Digital :-) I spent a couple of years trying to figure out how the company was put together as a system. Then I joined a late stage startup (Sun Microsystems) and worked there while it went from a "small company" (something bigger than your basic startup but I still got to know a lot of the company) to a "large company" the first billion dollar a year in revenue, and on to a run rate of $5B. Then I went back and started a company with some friends and we took it from the 5 of us to product launch and into the second product before we were acquired. And then back to a larger company to figure out some of the things I couldn't quite figure out in growing a company how folks had got there (mostly around sales to enterprises and getting the business model right).
The point being that my career to this point has really never changed its objective, which is to learn how to build and grow a great technology company. And helping me learn has been a number of friends and companies over the years.
So your objectives will tell you whether or not you should start at a big company or a startup.