Ask HN: Jumping from FAANG into a seed round company?
Recently got hit up with a request for some founders who just quit their jobs for their new venture.
They're in the process of raising a seed within the next couple of weeks. I think the project is pretty viable and will almost certainly be funded. (it's SAAS and Web3/Crypto, and the founders worked for VCs prev as well as/top tech companies ;)).
Generally speaking prev advice with seed startups is you can expect to live off ramen but has that changed in the current environment where everyone is flush with cash?
Would you leave if the product was both technically interesting and viable? I'm relatively early in my career, college grad during the beginning of the pandemic, and don't want to get totally screwed if this doesn't work out.
Anyone have experience, esp recent experience, with working for these super early stage startups? E.g. the founders just quit their jobs a matter of weeks ago.
16 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 31.3 ms ] threadEarly in your career, I'd say stay where your at. Most of us will never get to FAANG and you have no idea if this startup will make it.
Plus if they're hiring you as the lead engineer for the company that's a major red flag.
You bring in experienced people before junior devs.
I wouldn't do it, the vast majority of startups fail or sell for less than they took in investment.
Don't assume you'll get rich
Reverse it, say your at a startup and a FAANG offered you double the pay. What would you do ?
Also I wouldn't be the only engineer they're planning on hiring around ~10 or so and I have prev experience in the field they're building for. So I'd say I'm more of an intermediate dev.
Probably leave, depending on how well the startup is going, two in the hand and all that. That said my general goal at FAANG has been to meet people + stack cash and learn to eventually start my own thing. (And not be homeless if it doesn't work out lol.)
So if this startup pays eq/similar comp in cash and not monopoly money I'd say sure, just not sure of the quirks of working at a seed company hah.
Just. Say. No.
With any justice anyone involved in the Web3 grift will ‘never work in this town again.’
I'm not really opposed to crypto, although I would hardly qualify myself as a crypto bro. Did mess around with crypto a bit when I was younger (Which I will forever regret not holding onto lol), and I bought some NFTs to try out the tech which mostly sucked but was a fun learning experience where I met some cool people.
I don't really see the hype either way about its damages or the benefits of it, at least any more of less than any other piece of tech.
I can't separate the crypto phenomenon from experiences like: going to the memorial service of a woman who died of COVID-19 a year ago and running into her boyfriend who was boasting about how he'd scored a graphics card that he uses for Etherium mining. That woman's husband killed himself two years previously because she was having an affair with that guy and I told him with no uncertainty that I couldn't get a graphics card for gaming or neural network development and didn't want to hear again about him and cryptocurrencies.
Makes sense, do you have experience "walking back on"? Interviewing is such a PITA and I'd like to avoid it if I can.
It would be a big derisk to just go along for the ride for like a year with a pay cut, and if it doesn't work out come back.
Not sure which one you work at but at Amazon when I left (~2 years ago), you could come back within 6 months no questions asked without an interview, come back within 1 year you have to interview but no bar raiser, come back after 1 year full interview process. I never tried going back but that's what it was.
That makes sense to me too, honestly with those kinds of numbers might as well take a paid sabbatical for six months lol.
Just remember: you join at seed stage for the experience of building something from the ground up (and some degree of ownership over what you do). It's a long and uncertain path to if it will ever result in a payday.
Leaving FAANG is a reversible door, so you can always go back, but don't quit just because the founders are recruiting you. They need to win you over big-time
Also make sure you're paid right. Here's a database of startup salary & equity: topstartups.io/startup-salary-equity-database/
Thing is in five years we might not have 0% interest rates and tons of money flowing through the system which is making me consider this now. (B/c hopefully the startup will have enough money sloshing around to be about my current comp.)
The next RSU vest is always right around the corner.