What startups taught me (and why I'd still say yes)

Working at startups has been CHAOTIC, to say the least. But I have to say, it came with a lot of benefits too.

This is the honest version: what startup life teaches you, why people stay, and how to do it without burning yourself to the ground. (Ask me how I know.)

Lesson one: adaptability isn’t optional

The biggest thing working at startups taught me is how to be adaptable. And I mean ADAPTABLE, in damn near everything.

Don’t know how to write that report? Figure it out. Don’t know the international regulations around data privacy? Look it up, buttercup.

There’s rarely a manual, a big team or a “that’s not my job.” You have to bend FAST.

Lesson two: looking it up isn’t the same as knowing

Here’s the part nobody tells you. At a startup, you can’t just google it and hope for the best. You have to do your due diligence, which usually means finding the people who actually DO know and learning from them.

A few habits that saved me:

Keep a “who knows what” list. The contractor who understands your payroll setup. The friend who’s been through a compliance audit. Future you will be so grateful.
Ask specific questions. “How do I do X?” gets a vague answer. “We’re trying to do X, I’ve tried Y, and I’m stuck on Z” gets real help.
Write it down once. If you had to figure it out, document it so nobody (including you) has to figure it out again.

My biggest figure-it-out moment: an expensive, clunky process for moving data between several systems that did not want to talk to each other. No playbook. I had to learn how each system worked, find the people who understood the weird parts and piece together a better way. Now I’m flexing that same muscle in a totally different world: learning fast how to build a product that meets real customer needs in the oral beauty space.

So why would anyone stay?

Now you may be asking: why the hell would you keep working for a startup, sis? It sounds unsustainable and like a fast track to burnout.

Fair. WELL, let me tell you what kept me coming back.

You grow fast (financially too)

When everyone wears five hats, you get experience in months that might take years somewhere else. That experience makes you more valuable, and eventually that shows up in your paycheck.

Equity can matter more than you think

Cash is NOT always king. Equity is one of the ways people build real financial stability, or even freedom.

But equity is only worth something if the company succeeds, and a lot of startups don’t make it. Before you trade salary for shares, get answers to these:

How many shares or options am I getting, and out of how many total?
What’s the vesting schedule, and is there a cliff?
If they’re options, what’s the strike price?
If I leave, how long do I have to exercise my options?

And never take a pay cut you can’t afford on the promise of equity. Your rent doesn’t accept stock options. (Big sis, not a financial advisor. Talk to a tax pro before you exercise anything.)

You can mess up (sometimes)

Startups move so fast that mistakes are part of the process. That makes them a great place to soak up knowledge and grow your skills quickly, with fewer consequences than a standard 9-to-5 where every misstep gets its own meeting.

Flexibility

As more companies push people back into the office, flexibility is worth a lot, especially while you’re building your career. Many startups are more open to remote work and flexible schedules because they have to compete for talent somehow.

How to do startup life without burning out

Here’s what I wish someone had told me before I became a recovering burnt-out W-2 employee:

Pick a stop time and protect it. The work at a startup is never done. That’s exactly why you have to decide when you’re done.
Separate urgent from loud. Not every Slack message with three exclamation points is an emergency.
Don’t be the only one who knows. If everything lives in your head, you can never take a real day off.
Take your useful amnesia days. Log off, see your people, eat the sushi and forget the to-do list for a minute. It’ll be there.
Track your own wins. Keep a running doc of what you shipped and fixed. Raises, promotions and your next job search get so much easier.

What startups taught me (and why I’d still say yes)