| You write: "After 2 years, they could run the company into the ground and I will get nothing out of it except experience" I can relate to some of the frustration you express. I spent most of 6 years working with the entrepreneur behind Bluewall (http://www.bluewallmedia.com/). I worked there 2002-2008 (on and off). We occasionally built some projects that seemed to do well, initially, and which possibly would have grown if the business had had some focus and discipline and follow-up. (We built a decent video store for the yoga site http://www.ihanuman.com/store.php and we could have used the same software to build out a whole network of similar niche/community focused video sites.) I saw a lot of projects abandoned, some of which seemed to have big potential. It was frustrating to watch as $2 million dollars were wasted on what seemed like a long series of bad decisions. However, I can not fully agree with this part of what you write: "I will get nothing out of it except experience, which I can get in many other fulfilling ways." Strictly speaking, your statement is true, there are many other things you can do, all of which will bring you experiences. However, startup experiences are unique and not easily fungible for other experiences. The question then, simply, is whether you want startup experiences. If not, then you probably should not be working at startups at all, even if the pay was great. But if yes, then I think you'll walk away with experiences that will seem very valuable to you, and worth the opportunity cost. |
The other way to get startup experience is to start one yourself. You get the experience running a startup and the risk/reward ratio is much better.