Every job leaves you two sets of takeaways: a resume list of what you shipped and the "soft skills" you learned along the way (maybe keep some to yourself either way)
I was lucky to join two startups early enough to sit close to the people who decided to make the company exist in the first place. I'll spare you the sappy deets.
Here's a short list of what I learned as an early employee that's shaping the people side of Broadside:
- Everyone should know the origin story, and it's not for the sales pitch. Maybe some magic unicorns fall into the founder's seat. Most founders chose it knowing they were signing up for emotional pain for an unknown amount of time. Hearing the excitement firsthand told me more about each company than any strategy doc did. I don't mean why they were qualified to start it. I mean WHY they made THAT choice.
- For me: I wanted to see the startup world from the employee side before starting a company, so I collected my data before jumping in. Along the way, building a FULL idea from zero to one started to feel like the ultimate engineering challenge. Some people are into sports betting. Some people like to get risky professionally! I've always wanted the most stressful seat. The bonus now is that I have actual skills and a real problem that personally crushed my spirit, so ikigai or whatever.
- Every datapoint needs a timestamp, and so does people/company fit. The right person at the wrong stage is still the wrong hire, even if they're realllly awesome and qualified. Sometimes that's nobody's failure. The "time" at a startup is always changing, too. Whether you're hiring or getting hired, maybe it's not you! Maybe it's the timing. Also, sometimes it is you. Think hard, then move on.
- For me: I've had some REALLY cool jobs with REALLY awesome teammates, and each one ended because the timing stopped matching. When I open roles at Broadside, it's important to explain what phase the company is in and stay clear about it as we go. Beyond hiring, it's really about communication when things move soooo fast, and that goes both ways.
- Half-baked ideas are the job, but don't half-ass them. My best days at both companies looked the same. A few people were in a room, nobody was super sure of a decision because the data was early and thin, and pretty much everyone was working outside their lane. Lanes get helpful as you grow, but dang, those early days of thinking out loud and experimenting really hit. We all know meetings usually aren't "work." The best ideas and best times still come from making time to noodle.
- For me: Keep some creativity as we grow. Encourage people to share crazy ideas out loud, and make sure they know we won't go with all of them. Sometimes a teammate has more context!! That's chill. It's a hard balance when things change daily, but def worth it.
Two startups don't make me an expert and it's naive to think anyone can perfectly control this, but this will be nice to reflect back on.