Leaving Investment Banking Second Time for a Startup
As I have mentioned in my previous article, I left the world of investment banking to become a co-founder in VC backed SaaS startup. When things did not go as planned I parted away from the startup and plunged into the world of finance once more. I thought that I should give finance a second chance and I did, but as I expected my cravings for working in the startups have never vanished.
Even though I was working as an Investment analyst, I never broke the bond with the startups. As a side hustle, I was working with several startups to help them with their strategy and marketing. By doing this I kept my skills sharp and kept my network from my previous startup experience. After working as an investment analyst for 10 months, I received an offer from SF based startup with a wonderful team to join them as a Growth Manager. It was an “aha” moment for me, I told myself the time has come time to bring out your startup armor and put it on for the upcoming adventures.
So why did I leave the startup world if I was to come back again right? The answer is, I had some unfinished business with the investment banking, I felt like I did not get the taste of it enough, It was like the peanut butter that I did not get the taste in the first scoop so I went for the second scoop ( I am not going for the third dip).
What Did I Miss the Most About Startup Environment?
Taking responsibility: If you never worked in a startup and always been working in corporate environments than you do not know the real meaning of taking responsibility. Especially if you opt to work for an early-stage startup every action you do will have a huge impact and you will not have colleagues and associates to fall back on when things go wrong. I used to be one of those people who would blame my college for my wrongdoing ( I am sorry for this) and I would steer away from taking responsibility for my actions. With early age startups, you have no option to run away from taking responsibility, if you do something wrong you can’t blame anyone because you do not have 50 colleagues in the same department so you can’t hide.
Getting instant feedback on my actions: You reap what you saw right? This means you gotta wait for some time to crop your harvest. I like the reaping and sawing, I got no problem with these but damn I hate waiting. Can you reap what you saw without waiting? Well no, but you can shorten the waiting time significantly if you work for a startup. Especially if you are in charge of growth. You get to try something and get feedback pretty quickly. I like being creative and coming up with new growth hacks but what I love the most is, trying those strategies and getting instant feedback on them. If you are a restless freak like me, get a job at a startup and work for the growth team.
The flexibility and remote working: In the book, Charisma Myth the author implies that to feel charismatic and confident you have to wear clothes that you are comfortable in it. Hands up if you are more relaxed and confident while rocking your white T-shirt and superman underwear on your Zoom meetings (make sure to not stand up though). Flexibility is super good in startups you can wear whatever you feel like, you can work remotely from your favorite coffee shop, you can join calls while you are bench pressing ( I do this quite often and make unintentional sounds sometimes). Long story short the flexibility is awesome.
