So, You want to work for a startup? is an interesting post by the founders of Taazza targeted at people who want to join a startup. Having worked in a starup for more than two and a half years and having known other people who have done so for even longer, I can easily appreciate the post; it is great advice and I would second it. Most, if not all of the things they say in the post are bang on. This is very unfortunate, in my honest opinion. I’ll try to explain why I think so in this post.

Let’s take a quick look at what the proposition is when an early-stage startup is looking for an employee (update: this is not a quote from the Taaza blog post):

We are a very young startup who does not yet have a business model. We are looking for some really bright fellows to do some time with us. There are very many advantages of slogging with us: You’ll not get paid much, pay a lot more tax than your friends in larger companies and of course you won’t get almost any of the perks they do. You will work your ass off; and not just on the stuff we are hiring you for — you’ll get to spend some quality time on everything from maintaining our website to keeping our office clean. If all these great things are not attractive enough for you — you selfish pig! — we’ll give you some stock options. Yes, that’s right, you’ll actually own a teeny-tiny percentage of our company, a company whose value there is no easy way of determining. And in the (very unlikely) event that our startup succeeds and makes an exit (in say 3-5 years time) — and you don’t get fired before that on account of cost-cutting — you’ll actually make some money! So what if this money isn’t much more than what you would have earned in the same time had you joined some other company? The money you will make from your stock options will feel better — after all, it has come at the cost of your social life and health. “This will build character.”

Only a fool would look at the above and shout in excitement “Oh Wowie! This is the greatest opportunity since God offered a job to Moses!” This isn’t too much of a worry though — there are enough smart fools who would in fact do that very thing. But — and this is an important but — for how long do you think they’ll continue to think so? How long before they see that they are really getting a raw deal? After all, these are smart people!

I am not accusing founders of trying to fool smart people into joining them as employees. I am just pointing out that, amid all the excitement, founders tend to not empathize with the people they want to hire. They tend to become overtly greedy and miserly. Greedy and miserly is good — even great — for a startup; but being so in some cases might be detrimental to the very goal they are doing it for. The expression “penny wise pound foolish” very succinctly summarises this.

Of course, none of this applies if the founders are looking for a co-founder and not just an employee. The issue probably is that they are really looking for partners who can take up only a little less responsibility than a co-founder but they treat them as mere employees.

P.S.: Of course I am exaggerating.

P.P.S.: Lest it comes out that way, it is not my intention to rile at the post by the Taazza guys, I sincerely think it is good advice.