Why You Should or Should Not Work at a Startup by Justin Kan

Justin Kan is the CEO of Atrium - www.atrium.co/
Before cofounding Atrium, Justin was a Partner at YC and cofounder of Justin.tv/Twitch and Exec.
He gave this talk at YC's Work at a Startup Expo. Learn more at www.workatastartup.com/expo

[@mynameismatt2010]

Start-up guarantees 1: Stress 2: Long shitty hours 3: interpersonal conflict 4: Amazing learning opportunities 5: Tremendously accelerated personal growth 6: A sense that your work actually matters

[@ainsleyharriott2209]

I haven’t experienced points 4, 5 or 6 myself yet...

[@saviofernandes5263]

@@ainsleyharriott2209 same here

[@amando96]

@@ainsleyharriott2209 haha same.

[@elcapitan6126]

the last 3 can be attained in non-startups and minus the first 3. I.e. startups generally aren't worth it for software engineers. they ARE worth it for non-eng founders who can offload the stress to the software engineers (as this guy did). moral of the story: software engineers *will* be exploited in startups.

[@mynameismatt2010]

@@elcapitan6126 totally disagree.

[@binithasurendran8977]

Loved the comment about Y-intercept. “ It not where your Y-intercept is that matters, it’s your slope of learning .” profound

[@Startupsandsushi]

My y-intercept started at -2 but my slope is m = 20

[@vitaliysakun-duvalko8946]

@@Startupsandsushi that’s great lol. I love watching videos like these

[@BallyBoy95]

Lmao, that's jokes. My y-intercept is -1,000, time to find out if my m is good enough to to change my fate.

[@Yuchub33]

im a chemist and I graduated 5 months ago, I work at a startup , it was basically this or working for a lower wage as a lab technician, it has its benefits but its definitely not for everyone, if you cant tolerate uncertainty, chaos and ambiguity its not for you. If you consider yourself a nonconformist or independent person you should try it, specially if you just graduated, you will learn a lot about "real life" stuff. I have a somewhat flexible working hours, decent pay and benefits, and Im learning a lot of how a business runs, also I have direct communication with investors and I feel like my ideas truly matter, I feel like im part of mythbusters lol. Everyday I do different tasks so I never get bored

[@xulipaTV]

I agree. If you can learn how to navigate in the thunderstorms aka. startups then it's a wonderful mess.

[@KheHindenburg]

what startup was this?

[@ilovetech8341]

Has anyone heard of a startup that hasn't ripped off their employees equity in the last decade?

[@DesignLead]

Best talk ever!

[@DiddleDangle]

Oh man that bit about "You will get access to jobs you're completely unqualified for" SO TRUE hahaha. Been doing it for the past 5 years and it's been awful and great.

[@aemericenglish2417]

1. managment suck 2. not get rich 1. get job that ure not qualified 2. can build startup 3. Maximize speed of learning 4.

[@ahyungrocks5509]

He is an awesome speaker...very funny, yet informational.

[@MM-yq2mc]

Justin - you are a G - Big ups bruh

[@kopiking352]

awesome sharing !!!

[@dishcleaner2]

I started in the corporate world. Work life balance but my skills stagnated massively. Now in a startup. It’s like I’m in the hyperbolic time chamber unlocking new super saiyan transformations. I am hustling 10 hour days tho

[@Alex.Shalda]

Justin is amazing

[@SportsIncorporated]

'access to jobs you are completely unqualified for'. You can do that with government.

[@bccoleman8678]

Why do you need to go through YC or another incubator for a fourth time? Haven’t you learnt the skills/tricks the first few times and thus giving away the equity is wasted? Or is the value add of YC simply that great?

[@pedroblas5739]

YC is awesome

[@bccoleman8678]

@@pedroblas5739 but for the fourth time. Just say u make a billion dollar company. Are they $70m awesome? Considering you have already learnt from YC the skills, network, contacts, confidence, reputation., I don’t know man but I’d lean no!

[@AntonioHernandez-bo5jt]

thanks

[@Sateay]

What is a good startup salary?

[@dicktracy5066]

For what

[@batmanb8194]

Um half the pay for equity that gets diluted 5 times or never gets given, no thanks

[@sparcx86channel42]

equity from companies that worths nothing most of times

[@mynameismatt2010]

If your equity is getting diluted that's a GOOD thing... It means you're getting financing. When it sucks is if the valuation goes down and you're still getting diluted.

[@pavankumarsreenivasmurthy9488]

It's better to eat a small piece out of big cake rather than a big piece out of a small cake.

[@cfquaglia]

If you listened to this talk without watching, you would think it's Barack Obama speaking.

[@drichards4426]

Ehh. Slightly higher pitch on this guy.

[@Bozogumps]

Not even slightly close

[@phil7121]

3:25 that didn't age well

[@capcdn9593]

If you take away all the banter about camaraderie... you’re left with some points minus any sort of elaboration. This was more of a chit-chat session without any facts that supports his pros and cons list. He’s a terrible speaker lol