Advice for joining a startup

I’ve recently been asked this a few times and thought I’d write down my thoughts.

Famously Sam Altman said one of the best things you can do as an ambitious 19-year-old is join a startup on “breakaway trajectory”.

I personally had my own start-up, before I then joined a startup at 20, worked there for 3 years, and now at 24 doing my own start-up again. The delta of knowledge and chance of success now vs my first startup is worlds apart. I would highly recommend joining a startup early in your career - given you join the right one.

There are four things you should look at when joining a startup, in order of importance:

  1. People There is nothing more rewarding in life than working with extremely talented people. The most important thing when joining a startup is having an extreme level of respect and admiration for the people you will get to work with. Ask yourself: would you found a company with anyone from this group of people? If the answer is yes, you will most likely have a great time regardless of the outcome.

  2. Will it scale? I think this is what is meant by “breakaway trajectory”. One of the most valuable things you can learn is seeing a startup scale. Join a startup you expect will grow quickly from <20 → 100+ people. You will get insight very few people have. You’ll get to see the growing pains live, and it will be immensely valuable when you start your own startup later. It’s also a win on your resume.

  3. Impact, will you scale with it? This is a bit harder to tell before joining, roles shift around a lot, and even if you feel you start in a more unimpactful role, you can usually work your way towards one. However, look out for strong hierarchies, if those exist early on, it’s usually a red flag. While you work there, aim to work on things with an outsized impact, and try to take on new things so your responsibilities grow with the company.

  4. Last: monetary reward If all of the above are true, the chance of success is already as good as it gets. However, many startups still fail and even more startups fail to have a good exit. So don’t over-index on the expectation of a big payout. If it happens, great. If not, the above will be valuable enough by itself.

I personally got to join Worldcoins early team of 5-6 people, and dropped out of university to join the company. To this day it’s the best decision I have ever made. I got lucky and all of the above ended up being true. 1. Early Worldcoin team are some of the most talented individuals I have ever met 2. I got to see the company grow from 5→150 people 3. I got to run and grow the growth/ops team like it was my own startup 4. The equity also ended up being good.

Join a high-potential startup, your older self will thank you.