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Most early stage companies are wildly optimistic about their future and are at constant risk of going belly up. As a candidate, it’s important to go into the pr

Most early stage companies are wildly optimistic about their future and are at constant risk of going belly up. As a candidate, it’s important to go into the process with your eyes wide open and to do your due diligence. If you need or want stability, early stage companies probably aren’t worth your attention. Even if they hired you and even if you started, you’d be no less at risk of being let go. If you’d like stability, you’ll need to look for companies that are well capitalised and are executing on a long term strategy rather than fighting for survival (and even then, there’s still a risk — even FAANG’s are rescinding offers). Although what happened isn’t ideal, I don’t think it reflects too badly on the startups in question because they did pay you — and likewise, it’s fair for you to be annoyed / disappointed / frustrated.

Grustaf 4y ago
> Most early stage companies are wildly optimistic about their future and are at constant risk of going belly up. Yeah, sure. Ideally I'd like to see them being super optimistic in their own mind, and perhaps with potential investors, media etc, but more realistic when communicating with people like prospective employees. I would still have gone through the trial work and all the interviews even if I had known that their finances were shaky, the only difference is that then I wouldn't have stopped my job seeking efforts, and it would also have been less of a shock. Of course, pausing job seeking was my decision and my responsibility, but it wouldn't have cost them anything to be more forthcoming. If changing financial fortunes was indeed the true reason.
- phphphphp 4y ago
  There’s the need for a sort of… naive is probably the wrong word, but a type of optimism that is more than just being positive, a type of optimism that means you believe deep in your soul that your startup is going to succeed no matter what, and that optimism doesn’t allow for differentiating between internal and external presentation — there’s just optimism. There are founders who will only accept defeat when they are physically unable to make payroll or even when payments to employees start bouncing: that’s bad behaviour but it’s the sort of behaviour that is closely related to the same type of behaviour required to succeed. I completely agree that they would ideally be more open with prospects, people they’re interviewing etc. but I am not sure if that’s something we can expect to get. I spend a lot of time looking at the workatastartup website listings and (perhaps naively) I feel like I can identify which companies are flying by the seat of their pants (and therefore might one day wake up and realise “oh shit, we have to fire the new guy”) vs. the ones that I could expect to disclose to me a few months in advance when things are looking dicey. As applicants, we have to assume the worst and plan accordingly.

Grustaf 4y ago

> Most early stage companies are wildly optimistic about their future and are at constant risk of going belly up. Yeah, sure. Ideally I'd like to see them being super optimistic in their own mind, and perhaps with potential investors, media etc, but more realistic when communicating with people like prospective employees. I would still have gone through the trial work and all the interviews even if I had known that their finances were shaky, the only difference is that then I wouldn't have stopped my job seeking efforts, and it would also have been less of a shock. Of course, pausing job seeking was my decision and my responsibility, but it wouldn't have cost them anything to be more forthcoming. If changing financial fortunes was indeed the true reason.

phphphphp 4y ago
There’s the need for a sort of… naive is probably the wrong word, but a type of optimism that is more than just being positive, a type of optimism that means you believe deep in your soul that your startup is going to succeed no matter what, and that optimism doesn’t allow for differentiating between internal and external presentation — there’s just optimism. There are founders who will only accept defeat when they are physically unable to make payroll or even when payments to employees start bouncing: that’s bad behaviour but it’s the sort of behaviour that is closely related to the same type of behaviour required to succeed. I completely agree that they would ideally be more open with prospects, people they’re interviewing etc. but I am not sure if that’s something we can expect to get. I spend a lot of time looking at the workatastartup website listings and (perhaps naively) I feel like I can identify which companies are flying by the seat of their pants (and therefore might one day wake up and realise “oh shit, we have to fire the new guy”) vs. the ones that I could expect to disclose to me a few months in advance when things are looking dicey. As applicants, we have to assume the worst and plan accordingly.