We took a stroll around the web and curated some Quora tips on how to pick the right startup work culture for you.
From this user named Mahesh Murthy - founding and managing partner at Seedfund
“Simple test - figure out who in the startup were offered equity - and how much is held outside the founders.
If the non-founder equity pool is less than 7 percent, and has less than 10 percent of the non-founder employees as beneficiaries, think again.
Culture in many cases will follow from the sense of ownership.”
From this user named Manoj Gupta - founder of Craftsvilla.com“One strong reflection of a startup is their founders or vice versa. You need to meet them and understand their vision, passion and goals of doing it. Very few startups are bad because an inherent requirement of starting any venture is that founders need to demonstrate abilities beyond average person. Most of the bad startups I have seen are the ones funded by VCs. Startups who build from scratch are always different and command more respect premium than startups who grew because of VC money.”
From this user named Karthik Sirasanagandla - Startups expert
“Know thyself (i.e yourself). First things first, you’ve to introspect on your interests, strengths, weakness. Because everything else depends on this. Go wrong here, its granted that everything else is transient.
Know your founders. What is their experience? What is it that you can possibly gain from their experience.
Know your teams. Who do you get to work with everyday? This could well be a deal maker/breaker for you.
Know your job. What is it that you get to do every single day? What is it that you can learn by doing the stuff that you’re expected to do?
Know your management. Check if they are aligned to what the company stands for and can bridge what you want by working for the company.”
From this user named Arijit Lahiri - founder of QuoDeck“The culture of a company is neither [absolutlely] good nor bad... [However] it is good or bad for you.
Let me suggest an approach to evaluate a company you are looking to join. Every business requires a combination of 4 things to operate - Money, Intelligence, Contacts, Execution (MICE).
The order of these 4 define the essence of the company. A funded startup will likely operate as MEIC or MECI. A bootstrapped startup will be more likely IECM or EICM. They can be completely upside down as well. When I have spoken to my friends in Google, they gave me a sense that they operate on an IEMC model. I believe the same to be true of Amazon, and the more recent avatar of Microsoft.
Now, every person also has their own combination of MICE. Both in terms of what they give and what they want from the company. If what you offer or want is in line with the company MICE, the experience will be a happy one for you and you will fit in. Else, the culture may not be for you...”
From this user named Jaya Jha - cofounder of Pothi.comWhen I was at Google, one of the interesting hiring principles conveyed to us there was (apart from all the stuff that ensured suitability for the role) that you should hire someone you are willing to share a long flight with. I think this simple directive conveys a lot of what you would want in the people around you. From work ethics to general nicety.
In case of a startup, I would look at my interactions with the founders and with other people I would directly be working with. Does the interaction make me feel good and comfortable? Will I be happy to share a long flight with them (or Indianize it to share a 2-day train with them? :)). If not, I would not go there.”
Vijay Anand, works with The Startup Centre“Startups where the founders are unable to articulate what they are up to inevitably turn into pithole[s] of desperation.”
