[dasil003]

Great post! I think my main attraction to startups is that there is a much more reasonable chance of answering this question successfully. That is, everyone can put their heads together and come up with a coherent plan of action, which though certainly imperfect, at least has well-understood reasoning and awareness behind it.

In a large company it's orders of magnitude more difficult to create a persistent vision. Certainly with the right management talent it can be done, but it's damn hard and I have no strong desire to be a part of it (though I would join a well-oiled corporate team).

[smwhreyebelong]

I once worked for a well-oiled corporate team. It was actually a startup team acquired by the big company. That was the best work experience I have had so far. The team members got along really well and everyone worked really hard and was at the top of their game.

I have worked at a few other companies since then (big co, small well funded team at medium co, small co) but haven't found anything quite like that experience. I guess that's why it was a successful team: people were really productive and looked forward to coming to work, truly enjoying the work environment.

EDIT: The team knew where they were going and what the priorities were. The clarity of vision and enthusiasm goes a VERY long way towards creating a winning team.