Comments on: The ideal startup career path

By: Matthew

Matthew — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:29:58 +0000

Genuine startup A players don’t work for other people. It’s as simple as that.

Jon: All that working at a bigcorp does is spoil you for life and make you dependent on being cuddled by others. The little market knowledge gained is not worth the sacrifice in skill you make.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:05:14 +0000

Great post. I would also add…..

1. I would argue that there are benefits to working for a big company as opposed to working ONLY in startups. Not necessarily IBM, GE or the world. Wouldn’t you think that there are benefits to gaining good experience and networking with smart people at Yahoo (in its heyday), Google, Oracle, Sun, Cisco, PayPal, etc.? This is the stuff that is really hard to come by at a non-rocket-ship startups. Many homerun founders actually built their career at big companies and start their own gig. Think Salesforce.com, companies founded by PayPal mafia, etc.

2. From your perspective, how scalable is getting the type of mentorship from executives and managers at startups? I’ve heard things like, “I don’t have time for everyone” quite often at startups. When that happened, I’ve seen people leaving almost immediately. Yes, you’re right about getting access to the right kind of experience, but the question is….. is 50 person “startup” too big to get that experience?

By: Can business schools teach entrepreneurship? — giffconstable.com

Can business schools teach entrepreneurship? — giffconstable.com — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:28:12 +0000

[...] “the ideal startup career path“, by Chris Dixon (make sure to read the comments) Share and [...]

By: Twitter Should Listen to Warren Buffett. He Was Right in 1999. | Kyle Lacy, Social Media - Indianapolis

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:40:53 +0000

[...] The ideal startup career path (cdixon.org) [...]

By: Bennett Zucker

Bennett Zucker — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:03:45 +0000

Good discussion. I would only add that startups are not for everyone and neither are big businesses, and that you need to experience both to discover what’s right for you. You can learn good and bad habits at both and work with great people and losers at both. You may see yourself as an entrepreneur but realize that you need direction and a support system more than independence. The good news is that if you’re new to the business/tech world, you’ve got time to experiment, assess your comfort with risk, and find your path.

By: Startup Career Path, Startups Similar to Auto Racing | Start Philly

Startup Career Path, Startups Similar to Auto Racing | Start Philly — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:35:33 +0000

[...] Dixon talks about the ideal startup career path over on his blog. I agree completely and have been a recent fan of his thoughts and ideas. Further, [...]

By: chris

chris — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:23:15 +0000

Jon – fair point. I am speaking more to the many people I’ve met who think that they need to go work for 4 years after college at MS or Google before joining a tech startup. Sure, you learn something there but if their goal is really to be at a startup I think it’s better to just jump in.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:30:49 +0000

Chris,

Love the blog, but I have to disagree with a portion of your post:

“In my view, if your goal is to start a company, it is mostly a waste of time to work anywhere but a startup…”

In terms of culture, management, best practices, etc., you’re certainly correct. However, working at a “real” (read: non-startup) company allows you to see the way things are done now, the problems that exist, and opportunities to disrupt huge industries.

I could give a litany of examples, but let’s just stick to some of the more well known ones: Salesforce.com (Benioff = Oracle); Siebel Systems (Siebel = Oracle); Intel (Moore & Noyce = Fairchild); Palm (Hawkins = Intel / GRiD).

Before I get jumped on, I’m not claiming that one must work at a “real” company, that startup experience is bad, or anything of the sort. I’m simply saying that non-startup experience is not “mostly a waste of time” for those who desire to start their own companies, especially in the enterprise / biomedical space.

Regards,

Jon

Full Disclosure: I’m a founder who interned at a large company in the field that my startup is in.

By: Startups: hiring, careers, sales people — giffconstable.com

Startups: hiring, careers, sales people — giffconstable.com — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:57:55 +0000

[...] This week saw two interesting and related posts on startups and hiring/careers. Mark Suster wrote about who you should hire into your startup, and Chris Dixon wrote about the ideal startup career path. [...]

By: hari

hari — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:32:17 +0000

In my opinion. Best way to start a startup carrier path is to actually do a simple trial run, fail quickly and proceed to improve on what caused the failure.

Causes for failure could be

1).Money — Take a high paid job and earn it.
2).Lack of contact — Join an industry and take a job that increases contact.
3).Lack of people skills — Join a small company where you can be easily promoted to a Lead.
4).Lack of experience/training — Join a startup as employee.