If you think that being at an early stage startup employee means that you just work 100 hour weeks, then you're in for a surprise! Having been an early employee of a startup (Mint.com), and having started my own startups (BizeeBee and Femgineer) I've gotten a real sense of the pros and cons of being at an early stage startup. I'll talk about: • How to evaluate salary, equity, and lifestyle • How to mitigate risk • How being an early employee teaches you how to setup a company, build a product, and can catapult your career!

1. Femgineer Forum
Why You Should Consider being an
Early Stage Startup Employee
April 2, 2014
Poornima Vijayashanker
poornima@femgineer.com
@poornima
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2. Agenda
• What is an early stage startup?
• What’s unique about it?
• Misconceptions
• The reality.
• Financing.
• Exit strategy.
• Why YOU should consider it
• Common roles.
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3. I have been at a few
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4. Catapult your career!
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5. What is an early stage startup?
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6. Less than 20 people.
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7. What is unique about it?
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8. You will learn a LOT!
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9. Misconceptions.
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10. You’ll be joining
the next...
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11. You will make TONs
of money!
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12. You will ALWAYS be working.
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13. You work alone.
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14. You need to have a LOT of ideas.
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15. What you do need to watch out for...
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16. Constant change.
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17. You might not always receive help.There will some chaos.
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18. There are no clear steps to
advancement.
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19. You might not always receive help.
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20. 20

21. Change in direction.
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22. Lots of experiments.
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23. Sometimes you
move slowly.
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24. Freedom & Flexibility
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25. Funded or not?
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26. Funded Bootstrapped
vs
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27. Do you want to go fast?
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28. Team always matters.
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29. Equity.
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30. Dilution.
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31. Salary.
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32. AMT
Early Exercise
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33. 33

34. Acqui-Hired
Acquisition
IPODead Pool
_____
_____
_____
__
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35. Why YOU should consider it.
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36. YOU want to be an entrepreneur
someday...
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37. Who are they looking for?
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38. Experience building products.
Designer or Engineer
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39. Do you have a different skill set?
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40. Demonstrate your value.
GrowthShare Plan
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41. Who’s hiring
Their stats
Events
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42. Review
• What is an early stage startup?
• What’s unique about it?
• Misconceptions
• The reality.
• Financing.
• Exit strategy.
• Why YOU should consider it
• Common roles.
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43. Want to host a forum at your company?
Contact: justin@femgineer.com
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44. Courses for Spring 2014!
Lean Product Development
Visit femgineer.com/learn
Mentoring
Visit femgineer.com/mentoring
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45. How to Transform Your Ideas into
Software Products
http://femgineer.com/transform-ideas
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46. Q&A
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47. Breakout Session!
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48. KEY OBJECTIVE(S) AGENDA
DELIVERABLE
BREAK OUT SESSION
Identify your
misconceptions and how
you can add value to an
early stage startup.
30 minutes Get into groups of ~5 people.
1. Introduce yourself to the group.
2. Talk about your skills, recent projects,
and a topic you’d like to share.
3. Present & receive feedback
Short presentation
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