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I've been working at a small fin-tech startup. I won't say exactly how large it
is, where it's headquartered, or how long I've worked there. I'd like to stay
anonymous. For context, it's funded by prominent investors, employs many
smart[1] engineers and PMs, and is building something that is obviously useful.
The writing style in this post will be stream of consciousness, wordvomit. I
don't have a goal. I want to document my thoughts, and maybe unpack some things
that have happened.
anyway. onward.
It's hard to evaluate an early stage startup. Being inexperienced in the world
of tech startups, I mostly used heuristics:
[+1] if smart people, who would be paid handsomely elsewhere, are working at
this place
[+1] if the leaders of the business have domain experience, and are well
connected
[-2] if the company is working on speculative (meme) technology
My decision wasn't based on the fundamentals of the business. I suspect any
attempt at understanding it deeply wouldn't have provided much more predictive
power than my heuristics (for me. someone more experienced in the space would
obviously have better predictions).
Looking back, given the information I had, and how much my shares have
appreciated, I made the right call. But mostly, I got lucky.
in groups.
misaligned incentives.
~~~
[1] Smart meaning 1) effective engineers, and 2) have the credentials that
people often use as heuristics to examine competence (ivy league degrees,
selective prior employers, etc.)