[enjo]

>At a small startup everything is often falling apart at the seams... >Morale can rise and crash, repeatedly, like a roller coaster... >You're looking at the short term: days and weeks, not months and years...

None of this rings true to me. Not at any startup I've worked at/founded at least(6 in total over the last 12 years). In reality good startups are relatively even keel.

Hell I would argue that startups, almost by definition, think MORE in the long-term than their larger counterparts. In a startup you are always progressing towards a long-term goal, constantly taking in feedback and making adjustments.

It's much like sailing to a small island thousands of miles away. A mistake in navigation in the beginning that goes uncaught will put you farther off course than one farther along on your journey (although sometimes that mistake means you discover North America and then pretend like you meant to do that all along).

The point being, if your startup is constantly in panic mode or is constantly trading long-term stability for short-term satisfaction then you should probably be thinking about leaving. At least from my point of view.

[carterehsmith]

Did you ever work for a “non-startup”? Like, you are a car manufacturer, have to create some telemetrics software that has to work reliably in all kind of conditions, and hopefully not kill people, and has to be supported for the next 12 years minimum?

Compare to the startup that can just “pivot” at will and/or just end it with one of those “it was an amazing ride” blog posts.

Not trying to be smart, just presenting some perspective.

[enjo]

While that is absolutely true, I don't follow how that relates to my post? There is nothing inherent about the flexibility of a startup that means it has to be the frenetic roller-coaster that the thread starter referenced.