I spoke briefly at yesterday's Techvibes Start-Up Career Fair, introducing ten bright-eyed local startups who are trying to shake things up and are looking for some help along the way. I spent some time thinking about what I could tell the audience about why they should join a startup, or better yet, start one themselves. In thinking about it, I decided that I should really be targeting people who are about to finish school, have just finished school, or better yet, are just going into school.
Why should you join (or start) a startup? Three reasons:
You're young – Like Kevin Kelly, I have a death countdown clock on my laptop's desktop that is counting down the number of years, months, and days until I will likely expire. It's depressing, but it puts just how much time you've got on your hands into perspective. Statistics Canada estimates that the life expectancy of someone born today is 80 years, and all trends point to continued increasing longevity. In all likelihood, medical advances will extend life expectancy even further during your lifespan.
For someone early in their career, the implication is clear - you've got a lot of time on your clock (calculate it for yourself if you don't believe me). Take it from someone who's experienced the crushing desperation that can only be instilled by the beige walls (and carpet, and tile, and doors) of the old MPR Teltech building at SFU: forty years is too long to be stuck in a cubicle, playing silly corporate games, and building value for someone else.
You don't know any better – Let's face it, four years in university or two years in college probably haven't taught you very much about the "real world". While many might view that as a negative, I choose to look on it as a positive – you don't know what's impossible. Many of the greatest inventions were created by people who simply didn't know any better. Or, to put it another by stealing a lyric from the Arrogant Worms, "History is made by stupid people - clever people wouldn't even try".
Consider the invention of the integrated circuit. This monumental achievement was created by Jack Kilby, a new employee at Texas Instruments, while the rest of the company was on vacation (as a new employee, he wasn't yet entitled to the mass August vacation taken at the time by everyone at TI). Unencumbered by oversight and experience with what was or wasn't possible, he created the first integrated circuit and revolutionized an industry. The greatest missed opportunities these days aren't those that nobody knows about, they're the ones that everyone thinks are "impossible" or "unrealistic" to pursue.
You've got nothing to lose – If you're young, you've got relatively few responsibilities. You're probably not married. You probably don't have any kids. You probably don't have a mortgage. You might have school debt, but you can always find ways to delay repayment anyway. You can live cheap.
In other words, there's really not a lot of risk to taking some time to pursue a startup. How much money do you really need if you're living with three other geeks in a house in Burnaby and eating Ramen noodles? And if you screw up, what's the worst that will happen? You'll have to get a job. In my experience, there will always be opportunities to work for someone else when you really need the money.
When I first decided to pursue being a part of a startup, it was the middle of the Web 1.0 boom. Everyone I worked with at IBM wanted to start a company or go join a startup, but no one did. Everyone had an excuse as to why they couldn't go and do it - and that was when I realized I needed to leave. Since then, I've lived around the world, seen a lot, learned a lot, and, I'm proud to say, never once starved along the way. I've never regretted it. And neither will you if you take the leap.
So say it with me: I'm young, I don't know better, and I've got nothing to lose.
what qualifies as young?
Another great post, @Brendon. I think you should highlight the intangible lessons of being a part of a startup that can be elusive in larger corporate bodies, like risk taking, business sense, enthusiasm, etc. I don't think I've met anyone who worked for a startup and didn't become a better person along the way.
@branden: I'm inclined to say that "young" is the point where there's more road ahead of you than there is behind you. Young is the point where #3 is still true: you've got nothing to lose.
Now this is not to say that being older precludes joining or creating a startup (a topic of debate by many in the venture capital community). It's simply that it gets harder to take on risk when you have larger family responsibilities.
@jesse: Heh - yet another post for me to write. Thank god. I was running out of ideas!
Paul Graham adds:
"I still think 23 is a better age than 21. But the best way to get experience if you're 21 is to start a startup. So, paradoxically, if you're too inexperienced to start a startup, what you should do is start one. That's a way more efficient cure for inexperience than a normal job. In fact, getting a normal job may actually make you less able to start a startup, by turning you into a tame animal who thinks he needs an office to work in and a product manager to tell him what software to write."
Read "Why to Not Not Start a Startup" at http://www.paulgraham.com/notnot.html
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@Eugene: Yes, Paul Graham is certainly the inspiration for the premise of the post. While I don't always agree with his ideas (people have a tendency to not recognize that his advice primarily relates to web-based companies), I definitely agree with his "get going now" mentality.
I agree with his "get going now" mentality as well. Starting a startup is extremely hard but you just have to hang on and take the plunge like the others. You might not be successful the first time around but the knowledge you learn from running your own (operational, leadership, technical deliveries) are abundant.
If you're reading this post and have thought of running a web startup before, I suggest you do it! Its worth your time.
Brendon, I'm not sure if you'll be able to give this a shot. Paul Graham has written another wonderful essay calling it "Cities and Ambition" (http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html)
The essay talks about different cities and how they are different in terms of people it has. For example:
"New York tells you, above all: you should make more money."
"What I like about Boston (or rather Cambridge) is that the message there is: you should be smarter. "
"Silicon Valley, the message the Valley sends is: you should be more powerful."
I'm curious to know about Vancouver. I'd like your insight on this.
@Eugene: It's a good question, and one that I have been reflecting upon for a while and haven't arrived at a conclusion yet. Sounds like a good topic for a future post!
@ Brendon: I've been pondering on this for awhile as well and its definitely a challenge just to get a grasp on what Vancouver is all about.
This would definitely be a good read as others I'm sure are interested in finding out what Vancouver is all about in terms of the people it has.
Everyone needs to join a startup at some point if you truly want to experience the thrill of building something from scratch. There is nothing like it. You are inventing the company. I remember the early days at NetNation where I would on the same day, build desks, hire people, negotiate purchases of hardware and software and a million other things that need to get done. Worked more than 15 hour days and loved every minute of it. (I was 41 when I joined NN so not so young ;-)
The experience spoiled me for old school stodgy companies, not that I was ever a prime candidate for those places.
