How do you find early stage startups to join
Curious how others find early stage startups to join. Thinking first engineer that a startup is hiring to maybe first 20 employees.
I think the most relevant is through your network, mainly because it’s generally a trust matter on both ends. It’s best when the deal is a known quantity vs looking over “who’s hiring monthly HN posts”.
I had 10-15 people i was working with (not all employed) at my last startup and they all came through my network either directly (ex colleagues) or through trusted parties.
Again it’s mostly a trust thing more than anything.
Look for startups that interest you and then email the founders. Follow up every two months until you hear a hard no. Things are absolute chaos at an early startup and it's rare that the job board (if even there at all) is up to date.
Source: I work at an early stage startup.
I'm curious as to why startup would be a goal specifically vs the job itself at any company? Lifestyle, company size, career growth, equity, something else?
In the four early stage startups I've gotten into:
1) Found it through an agency (this was in the late 80s, though).
2,4) I knew someone who was already working there.
3) I knew someone who knew someone who worked there.
So basically through your network.
Just do the stuff in the same space, either by aligning your current work or shipping hobby projects, writings, opinions on social media. You will quickly “map” the people in the area you are interested in and your only task is getting on their radar. Then you can expect them to reach out. This solves all the tediousness of cold outreach or interviews, etc. Worked well for me for the last two decades.
For startups that have an open-source component, GitHub is a good channel. That's how our first hires came to marimo.
Watch funding announcements and reach out directly, preferably with a warm intro if you can get one. Recently funded startups are often under pressure to hire ASAP and if you convince them to hire you, they’ll do anything to close the deal (i.e. they’d rather beat a high counter-offer than restart their interviewing cycle).