Big vs. Small
I frequently mention that there is a big difference between big companies and small ones, startups in particular. And I often quote Steve Blank, who has said that small companies search, big companies execute.
There are many places where the differences show up, none more important than when you are adding staff to your startup.
The Allure of Big-Company Candidates
If you’re naïve (and your candidate is also naïve) you may be excited about adding, for example, a salesperson from a large company in your field. They met quota every quarter, they won awards at their previous company, they can talk knowledgeably about the field and know customers in the companies to which you want to sell.
Some things I’ve heard big-company sales candidates say when interviewing at startups:
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“The stock options are fine but I’ll need to make more than I was making at BIGCO.” “What support staff will I have?” “No, I’ll need a bigger base salary than that.” “Of course I always fly first class. You meet more important prospects that way.” |
Mindset and Expectations
There are big differences between life at a big company and your startup. For example, a technical staffer may be used to big budgets and all the equipment needed in order to perfect their technology. And they may expect to be able to fully develop even an unpromising project to completion.
At your startup, you will need to constantly review which products are developing well and are also matching what you learn about market needs. You may kill promising as well as unpromising development directions as you learn more about what the market wants from your company.
You will be using the portfolio approach, which many big firms talk about but don’t actually implement. You will:
Constantly review
Constantly alter directions, and
Constantly change priorities and kill projects before they get a fair chance to be finished.
Sales Structure: BigCo vs. Startup
Sales will also look very different. In BIGCO, there was a sales manager; there were rules and processes, quotas. Marketing provided leads and the materials you needed to send or leave behind. There were priorities about what you were selling and what you weren’t so concerned about. These were reflected in the commission structure.
The Startup Reality
In a startup, you have the advantage of working with the CEO and the originators of your company’s technology. Because of this you should have the chance to ask a lot of questions about how the technology works and develop a deeper understanding than if you just memorize a spec sheet provided by marketing. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that you may have to be the person who writes the spec sheet. You may be the person who figures out (because your trained-in-a-university colleagues didn’t know) that you need a spec sheet.
You’ll probably have to develop your own system for tracking prospects. I go into more detail on this topic in Build Your High-Tech Startup. You’ll need to prioritize leads and keep an updated list of your Top Five.
You’ll need to do your own research on which companies might want to buy your products, or if you’re lucky, you will have a chance to teach a smart and organized intern or junior staffer how to search for what you need. (Yes, you can try using AI for this task, but don’t trust the results overmuch.)
You’ll have to figure out which professional meetings to attend. Just as importantly, you’ll have to make sure that everyone from your company who attends knows what to say, follows your system for making notes on the business cards they obtain, assigns priorities to the prospects they meet, and gets the information to you right away, not next week.
These are some examples of the differences between life in big companies and in startups.
Choosing Your Environment
What kind of person are you? Which kind of situation feels comfortable? Does the prospect of greater responsibility, greater need for creativity and organization, probably harder work, and greater risk excite you?
Or do you find the prospect of greater risk, more complicated and sometimes unclear responsibilities, more opportunities to make mistakes, to be daunting?
A Personal Decision
There may be more factors which bear upon your choice than your personal preferences. You may have family responsibilities, student loans to repay, a mortgage, tuition, car payments—there’s a long list of items which force you to reduce the amount of risk you can responsibly take.
Your choice of career, risk, and lifestyle will be a very personal decision, personal for you and those close to you. Make your choice and move forward without resentment or regrets—great careers are possible in both settings.
The Takeaway
Startups aren’t just smaller versions of big companies; they’re different in pace, structure, and expectations. Whether you’re choosing where to work or who to hire, know the trade-offs and make your decision with clarity.