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Ask HN: startup or small team within big company

5 points by rdcastro ↗ HN
For those of you who worked at startups or were members of small teams at big companies working on new projects, what differences do you see? How do they compare? What are the pros and cons that would make you want to join or stay away from one or the other in the future?

What advice would you give to someone at a big company wanting something smaller, less bureaucratic, more agile, and with engineers owning more of product/service?

10 comments

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codeonfire
>what differences do you see?

In big corp's non-producing types are basically trying to get VPs to give them more power and money. In startups, founders are trying to get investors to give them more power and money. In both cases, engineers are simply seen as tools to achieve these ends.

Start-ups have only one power structure whereas big corps have lots of feudalism going on. At a start-up, the only recourse an engineer has against the bureaucracy is to quit. At a big corp there's more options.

At start-ups, douche-ey behavior can get out of hand. There's not the normalizing force of a large corp to keep people's egos in check.

There are exactly zero pros to being an employee other than it prevents homelessness. If you're an engineer working as an employee, forget about trying to find a better job. They don't exist for engineers. My advice is to do what I'm doing. Have your quit date planned and focus on that and nothing else.

S4M
> My advice is to do what I'm doing.

Out of curiosity, what are you doing?

codeonfire
I'm putting together a personal budget app based on some spreadsheets I've been using for years. Its not going to be your usual budget app.
S4M
Well, good luck with that.
rdcastro
> My advice is to do what I'm doing.

Same as the other comment: what are you planning to do?

mohit_agg
"members of small teams at big companies working on new projects"

can get worst of both the worlds. it depends.

rdcastro
Like the other commenter mentioned, at startups there isn't much you can do if things go bad but quitting. Also, there's not necessarily financial security as a big company.

What would be the worst of both worlds in your opinion?

mohit_agg
i meant those teams will have to face bureaucracy, politics, collaboration with slower teams, overkill processes, futile meetings of a big corp. while working fast on tight deadlines like a startup at the same time.

also, startups fosters innovation, can provide rapid growth, you get to learn outside tech about business, marketing stuff, but not in a big corp

johnrgrace
Advice? If you get something smaller and more focused in the big company - The political stuff only LOOKS like it has gone away, know that it is there and you'll have built up negative political equity when you didn't see the politics. When you come out of your project be mindful that the companies political immune system may see you as a pathogen to be attacked.
rdcastro
Yes, it does makes sense what you said. Thanks for sharing.