Startups Are Like Marriage: If You Overthink It, It's Always A No

An excerpt from the larger conversation with PII censored.   

Hey guys, and welcome to the latest article on my blogpost. If you’re here due to the click-bait title, I apologize for it, but I wanted to share my thoughts on a topic which came up as a joke in a group chat. To discuss startups, feel free to book a Superpeer call with me here, or follow me on Twitter here.

My current hypothesis is that Startups are to Love Marriages like MNCs are to Arranged Marriages.

So, to test this hypothesis, let’s make some arguments towards/for this.

This article is largely based on my own experiences in life, and so is very subjective. If you want actionable advice, it would most likely be better to seek it from someone you know and trust in life. Take everything from here on with a pail of salt.

1. Your Parents Question your Decision to (join a) Startup

The above point being for anyone skipping the traditional campus placement/higher studies and for once trying to do their own thing in life. Indian parents being Indian parents (or parents in general) try to find comparisons in your life with their own lives.

So, your parents, having grown in an India where only large companies existed, don’t understand startups.

Where’s the long-term stability? What are your long-term growth prospects? Why don’t you join the MNC with a lavish office and large number of perks and benefits?

In the above question, every question was asked except for the human question.

How are the people there? Do you like their vision? Will working there fulfill your passion? Will you be working towards your interests?

Instead of the human reasons why you want to work there, your parents will use the same arbitrary choosing points they used when they were entering the job market (which are at this time and age quite dated). 

While trying to assure or assuade your parents of your decision to (join a) startup, try to reach out to their human side. Tell them, for once, to think of what you like (and are interested in) and make them understand that your decision works out better over the longer term.

And don’t fall into the MNC/FAANG trap either, you’ll most likely be stuck working on legacy projects using legacy tech.

2. With MNCs, there’s no Dating Period

Well there is, if you get an internship, but good luck getting paid a similar amount as the full-time role while working with the same team with similar responsibilities. Other than this route, there's not much else you can do in an MNC to get to know your team earlier.

On the other hand, you can mostly negotiate a probation period in your startup role to have a back-off point in case you don’t like the team or the workplace. 

Use your probation (dating) time to your advantage, by getting to know your colleagues in depth. Learn about their strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly, their life stories.

This will help you make better choices for something you will be doing for the majority of your waking hours, and consequently, for life.

Tip: Don't accept lesser pay for your probation, that's just an internship in sheep's clothing. 

FIN

Whelp, those were the most defined thoughts I could come up with over the period of a week of thinking. Is this article incomplete? Yes. 

This was a very subjective article so I’ve written based on my life experiences. To add more arguments here, why not comment below or tweet at me?

Thanks to Madhavi Swamy, Preetam Nath and Deb Mukherjee for giving a draft of this a read!

Also posted here.