I'm first employee at a start-up now, and while not a founder, the experience I have from seeing this stuff in previous companies totally changes the game.
When we decide to do something, such as make key hires, build new teams or invest in infrastructure, we have way more confidence that we're doing it at the right time. And when we do it, it's 90% what we need, skipping so many of the painful intermediate stages I've seen before.
It makes a huge difference in velocity, which is key for successful start-ups. So while you're right about funding and network, you execute better too.
Yeah so what you explain is that you have more confidence about what your do, but that says nothing about the success rate of previous startup employee vs success rate of others
Yes, having experience in a domain can help you be more confident in your decisions. Are you trying to argue that experience plays no role in long term outcomes of building businesses?
I don’t think he’s arguing about the benefit of having confidence and experience in a domain, but rather the origin of the experience and confidence and how it impacts a startup’s success.
In this case: the startup success rate of those who worked for startups vs those who worked in some other institutions (or for some, no work at all).
Sure, working at a startup might make you be confident at making decisions, but will that confidence lead to good results when you’re a founder? Working at another place can give you confidence as well, but again, will it help you get the results you want in your startup?
Anyhow, I’m not sure the answers matter much because the author didn’t write much about the uniqueness of the skills learnt in startups. He emphasised more on velocity of learning skills that can be learnt in many places, but high-growth startups can provide the fastest route.
When we decide to do something, such as make key hires, build new teams or invest in infrastructure, we have way more confidence that we're doing it at the right time. And when we do it, it's 90% what we need, skipping so many of the painful intermediate stages I've seen before.
It makes a huge difference in velocity, which is key for successful start-ups. So while you're right about funding and network, you execute better too.