This year, we’ve seen record-breaking investments in seed and early-stage startups, creating a lot of new job opportunities. We’d love to see women land these roles and accelerate their careers. Joining a startup team can be a pivotal step in your career with new skill development, fast timelines for advancement, and a chance to earn equity in your company.
Still, many women are intimidated by the seemingly large risk associated with joining an early-stage company. If startups are uncharted territory for you, it can be hard to imagine what working at one can be like.
We’ve asked these tech leaders from the Lady Bird Talent community to share their experiences working with startups. We hope you find them as insightful as we did!
As always, if you’re looking for a new role, check out our openings and join our talent pool. We have new opportunities popping up every day so, if you don’t see something you love right now, we’ll reach out when we have a good fit.
What do you love about working for an early-stage startup?
My favorite thing about working at startups is the cross-collaboration across different departments. As a Finance professional, it is easy to be pigeonholed in a specific area of a company’s finance and accounting departments. Startups can provide the opportunity to work directly with all departments toward a common goal.
What unique offerings can startups provide?
Startups provide the ability to work on the projects you really want to work on relatively quickly. While you may find yourself working on projects that just need to get done, you also have the flexibility to voice your interests and career goals and start working on those projects as soon as possible.
Did you have any hesitation about joining a startup? What surprised you once you were on a startup team?
Yes! My first job was at Deloitte, which is an extremely large and stable company. The idea of working at a startup that was dependent on venture capital funding and was focused on product investment instead of immediate profitability terrified me. However, once working at a startup, going through several rounds of funding, and helping the company grow and scale, I realized the experience I received far outweighed any risk involved. The truth is while a lot of startups fail, the experience you receive working at even a failed startup only propels your career forward. Many who work in startups joke that 6 months at a startup is the equivalent of 2 years of experience anywhere else.
What are your long-term career goals? How is this role a stepping stone in helping you achieve them?
My long-term career goals are to potentially become a CFO or COO at a startup through to a successful exit. Additionally, I would love to start my own company advising start-ups on all things finance.
What advice would you give to other women who are considering a role with an early-stage startup?
Do it! We live in a day and age where we no longer are expected to stay at the same job for 20 years. The more varied, hands-on and big picture experience you can get in your field, will only make you more knowledgeable and confident in any future roles.
What do you love about working for an early-stage startup?
The stamp you can make on it! In a startup environment, it’s easy to see where your effort goes and how it affects the full picture!
What unique offerings can startups provide?
Diverse days and a lot of learning on your feet. The experience gained at a startup can be angled in a ton of different directions as you move forward in your career because of the many hats you are required to wear with a smaller team.
Did you have any hesitation about joining a startup? What surprised you once you were on a startup team?
Yes. In my job hunt, I was between accepting a position at a startup and one of the largest design teams in Austin. I ended up choosing the startup simply due to my timeline but was extremely happy with that choice in the long run. I realized that what may have lacked in “perks” was made up for in rapid and compelling experiences.
What are your long-term career goals? How is this role a stepping stone in helping you achieve them?
I have since moved from the startup world into a product manager role at a larger organization. I was able to move into this position because of the voice I was able to carry while working on the design team of this same product through the startup design agency I was a leader within.
What advice would you give to other women who are considering a role with an early-stage startup?
Make sure to know your boundaries, because startups are definitely going to test them, whether it be financial, work/life balance, or mental. The more flexible you are in approaching the role, the more flexible it will be in what you can make out of it.
What do you love about working for an early-stage startup?
I love how much ownership I have over my domain (in this case, marketing). It’s empowering to know that if we come up with an idea for a new email campaign, for example, we can just go out there and send it — and start seeing results (and learning from them!) almost immediately. Basically: if we can dream it, we can do it.
What unique offerings can startups provide?
What I find so wonderful about working at startups is that it’s pretty much up to you how much responsibility you want to take on. Because you’re constantly building from where there was nothing before, it’s easy to raise your hand and say, “I’ll try owning this new initiative we’re piloting!” I’ve learned so much (and learned it so much *faster*) from being able to take on those opportunities.
Did you have any hesitation about joining a startup? What surprised you once you were on a startup team?
I’ve spent most of my life at startups, so I actually might be more hesitant to join a more established company! While there are risks to joining a startup — namely that the company’s future is just more uncertain than that of a big, established brand — the rewards are, in my mind, so much greater. You can super-charge your career growth at a startup, just by virtue of the fact that you’ll be building your own skill set every day as you build the company.
What are your long-term career goals? How is this role a stepping stone in helping you achieve them?
I’d love to one day run my own small business, and working at a startup is the best possible preparation for that dream. Because we’re a small company, I work so closely with all teams – operations, engineering, sales, HR – and I get to learn more about how each of those functions. By no means am I an expert in any of these areas, but I get exposure to the full business every day, in a way that I just wouldn’t at a large corporation.
What advice would you give to other women who are considering a role with an early-stage startup?
Taking the leap and joining a startup can feel like a big risk — so I like to take as much time as I need while interviewing to really dig into the opportunity. I try to remind myself that the interview process is truly two-way and that I need to feel as good about the company as they do about me. I’ll ask as many questions as it takes for me to feel comfortable about the startup’s goals, funding, current team, future plans, etc.
What do you love about working for an early-stage startup?
I love that there is an opportunity to learn other functions that you might not otherwise have the opportunity to do. For example, I have had the opportunity to help with some marketing in my current position that I might not otherwise have been able to do in a bigger company. I also love how you can see how every person’s work impacts the company as a whole.
What unique offerings can startups provide?
A huge one is the ability to invest in the company and yourself at the same time! Startups offer the chance to help the company through lots of different challenges that you don’t get to see as closely as when a company is big. There is more transparency and trust in all employees.
Did you have any hesitation about joining a startup? What surprised you once you were on a startup team?
No hesitation for me in joining a startup. I look at it as an opportunity to shape a company! The thing that surprised me the most at my first startup was the level of trust they had in each employee. I felt more empowered to make decisions without getting approval as long as it was what was best for the company.
What are your long-term career goals? How is this role a stepping stone in helping you achieve them?
My long-term career goals involve building honest, transparent, diverse teams that want to solve problems together and be able to invite other women, girls, and POC to my table. This role gives me the ability to continue to learn and grow in my role and as a human. I also get the chance to learn a ton about how all facets of the company work so that I can help us be successful as we mature as a company.
What advice would you give to other women who are considering a role with an early-stage startup?
Take the leap! You are making an investment in yourself and the company. It’s not how it used to be at a startup where you get paid for 40 hours and you are working 80! You can have a huge impact on how the company grows and changes over time.
