Thinking of Joining Your First Startup? 5 Reasons to Make the Leap Today

How many times have you heard someone talking about their startup recently? Chances are, quite a few. According to statistics, there are a whopping 100 million startups launched every year, and the trend doesn’t seem to be dying down.

Even though 90% of them are bound to fail, that’s still an incredible 10 million startups popping up annually.

If you’re thinking of launching your own startup, this may be disheartening news. However, if you’re thinking about working in a startup – that’s millions of opportunities opened up every year.

I’m lucky to be a part of Chanty team. Together we are building an AI-powered team chat. We’ve embraced all the benefits startup culture offers and today I’m happy to share the perks with you. Here are some of the reasons why everyone should try working for a startup – at least once in their lifetime.

1. You get to wear many hats

In a traditional environment, if you get hired as a marketing manager, you have a pretty predictable list of tasks you need to do every day. Starting campaigns, creating ads, managing social media profiles, taking care of content – just the usual.

In a startup, your job description is fairly fluid, regardless of the position. As a marketing manager, you may end up helping with design, accounting, logistics, project management, copywriting – whatever the situation requires.

As an employee in a startup, you’ll often have the chance (or obligation) to delve into areas which are not your expertise. You get to expand your horizons and learn how to do something completely new.

This carries additional responsibility, but also more influence in the overall direction of the startup.

2. What you do really matters

If you’re the type to enjoy breaking barriers and stepping out of your comfort zone at work, the startup life is for you. Not only will you be able to do new things, you will actually be able to see your work making an effect.

In standard working environments, there are obstacles and hoops to go through with any decision. Team leads, management, upper management – sometimes it may take weeks and months for a decision to come through the administrative rings and make it to execution.

As startups are tightly-knit teams with very few people, each decision you make can have an immediate effect on where the company is going. As mentioned, this carries great responsibility, but at the same time, it’s a unique opportunity to see the effects of your ideas in real life.

3. Things move fast

In your run-of-the-mill office job, you may not be used to seeing many changes on a daily basis. Startups are prone to fail, but they are also prone to rapid change and growth.

This means that you will see your team expanding quickly, and if you join early enough, you’ll get to sit with the founding team. Moreover, startup employees get promoted more often than their more traditional office counterparts.

4. More collaboration

If you’ve ever wanted to be close to your coworkers and collaborate more closely, you’ll love working at a startup. The teams are small and you need to be tightly connected to coworkers from different departments to get work done.

Whether you’re in a common space or working remotely, you’ll work closely with your teammates, instead of being dispersed across departments and offices.

5. There are special perks

Just as startup CEOs know their chance of failure, so do the potential employees. It’s kind of hard to get someone to ditch their comfy office job with a secure salary and come to work for a startup which might fail months after they sign a contract.

Startup owners and CEOs know this, so they use different perks to motivate employees to come work for them. Some of the things you can enjoy are:

• Working remotely
  
• Flexible hours
  
• Unlimited vacation
  
• Company equity

The famous startup job board Angel List even has a list of startups that offer equity to new employees.

The list of perks doesn’t end here, and it’s quite likely that the startup you’re applying for has something unique to offer to attract you as a candidate.

For example, Airfocus is a small startup that sponsors one weekend trip per employee with flights and hotels for the entire family to a destination of choice in Europe.

Conclusion

Although startups carry inherent risks and uncertainty in one’s career path, they’re unique opportunities for work. By committing to work in a startup, you’re committing to an idea and watching it come to life.

As such, startups are worth the risk. The only thing that’s left to do is find your home among 10 million new ones being built every year.