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    Finding Startup Jobs: A Step By Step Guide For Getting A Startup Job You'll Love
    Finding Startup Jobs: A Step By Step Guide For Getting A Startup Job You'll Love
    Finding Startup Jobs: A Step By Step Guide For Getting A Startup Job You'll Love
    Ebook157 pages1 hour

    Finding Startup Jobs: A Step By Step Guide For Getting A Startup Job You'll Love

    By John Gannon

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    About this ebook

    The coolest startup jobs aren’t advertised. In Finding Startup Jobs John Gannon gives you the passwords you need to crack into them.
    - Amol Sarva, Co-founder Virgin Mobile USA and Founder of Knotable

    Finding Startup Jobs is the definitive resource for anyone looking to begin building an exciting career in high-growth startup companies. It breaks down your startup job search end to end: all the way from building one's network in the startup community to actually negotiating your final offer. It's hard to imagine any resource that would be more complete and more informed than Finding Startup Jobs.
    - Rob Go, Founding Partner, NextView Ventures

    Becoming a cherished employee for a high-growth company can fundamentally change your career and life. Anyone considering joining this world should pick up Finding Startup Jobs immediately.
    - Aaron O'Hearn, CoFounder of Startup Institute

    Finding a job at a startup is not easy. Finding Startup Jobs guides you from the first step in identifying if this is the right path for you - to the final part of the process deciding to join a company. With the majority of jobs out there following traditional rules and processes Finding Startup Jobs provides a much needed map to figuring out how to get a job at a startup.
    - Eric Friedman - Revenue at Foursquare

    Startups are a firm part of the new American Dream. In Finding Startup Jobs, entrepreneur and startup CEO John Gannon opens the playbook to job seekers on how to land a dream job in a startup and features some of the leading investors, entrepreneurs, and flat out hustlers in the industry.

    Gannon starts at the beginning and challenges readers to examine the harsh realities of whether or not they are a good candidate to work in a startup environment. A good bit of the first few chapters is dedicated to educating readers and startup job seekers as to the potential roles available for a variety of skill sets including sales, marketing, product management, and more.

    For most people, getting a great startup job hinges on networking and Gannon explains step by step how to develop and cultivate a fruitful startup network. Choosing a company, interviewing, and negotiating a job offer are covered in detail as more advanced steps for a successful potential employee. The harsh realities of potentially being fired from a startup are discussed, as is the climate for MBAs in startups.

    Regardless of your experience level, Finding Startup Jobs will ask you hard questions to determine your motivation, skill set, and preparedness for launching a startup career.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Gannon
    Release dateMar 31, 2015
    ISBN9781311980021
    Finding Startup Jobs: A Step By Step Guide For Getting A Startup Job You'll Love
    Author

    John Gannon

    John Gannon has worked in the Internet and software sectors for the last 16 years in a variety of business development, professional services, technical architecture, and venture investment roles. Recently, John worked at VMTurbo, an early stage virtualization and cloud computing startup software company backed by Highland Capital Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. He joined the company as the first business side hire and led customer development, business development, inside sales and marketing initiatives from alpha through the company's public launch. Prior to joining VMTurbo, John worked as an early stage venture capitalist at L Capital Partners, where he sourced and performed due diligence on potential investments in Internet and software companies and served as a board observer for OnPath Technologies, a physical layer network switch vendor. Earlier in his career, he worked at VMware, Scient, and FOXSports.com in a variety of technical and professional services leadership roles. He is currently employed by a leading cloud computing service provider. John received a B.S. in Computer Science Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia Business School. He resides in New York City with his wife, twin daughters, and an American Hairless Terrier.

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      Book preview

      Finding Startup Jobs - John Gannon

      Finding Startup Jobs

      A Step By Step Guide For Getting A Startup Job You'll Love

      John Gannon

      ~~~

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright © 2015 by John Gannon. All rights reserved.

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Foreword

      Introduction

      1: Are you ready to join a startup?

      2: No coder no cry (Or: Startup jobs for people who don’t code)

      3: The hard skills you need for startup success

      4: Building your startup network from scratch

      5: Picking the ‘right’ startup

      6: Getting and acing the interview

      7: Evaluating and negotiating your offer

      8: You’re fired

      9: MBAs and startups

      10: Startup schools

      Afterword

      About The Author

      Endnotes

      The coolest startup jobs aren’t advertised. In Finding Startup Jobs John Gannon gives you the passwords you need to crack into them.

      - Amol Sarva, Co-founder Virgin Mobile USA and Founder of Knotable

      Finding Startup Jobs is the definitive resource for anyone looking to begin building an exciting career in exciting, high-growth startup companies. It breaks down your startup job search end to end: all the way from building one's network in the startup community to actually negotiating your final offer. It's hard to imagine any resource that would be more complete and more informed than Finding Startup Jobs.

      - Rob Go, Founding Partner, NextView Ventures

      The rules of the job search have changed dramatically in the last 10 years, and this is even more true for startups. John Gannon is a true expert on what it takes now to get noticed and hired by a high-growth company, and Finding Startup Jobs is a must-read for anyone who wants to land a startup job.

      - Adrian Granzella Larssen, Editor-in-Chief of The Muse

      John Gannon has long been considered a pro’s pro in navigating the twists and turns of the startup ecosystem. After reading Finding Startup Jobs, you’ll know exactly what you need to do to find a startup job that you’ll love.

      - Charles Bonello, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Grand Central Technology Accelerator

      Becoming a cherished employee for a high-growth company can fundamentally change your career and life. Anyone considering joining this world should pick up Finding Startup Jobs immediately.

      - Aaron O'Hearn, CoFounder of Startup Institute

      Finding a job at a startup is not easy. Finding Startup Jobs guides you from the first step in identifying if this is the right path for you - to the final part of the process deciding to join a company. With the majority of jobs out there following traditional rules and processes Finding Startup Jobs provides a much needed map to figuring out how to get a job at a startup.

      - Eric Friedman - Revenue at Foursquare

      Top 5 Tweetables (Click to Tweet)

      1. Informational interviews are the lifeblood of the startup job hunt.

      2. Startups want missionaries not mercenaries. When the going gets tough, they want know that you won’t quit because of some bumps in the road.

      3. Sad but true: Working at a startup dramatically increases your chances of being fired.

      4. Good startup salespeople can make a lot of noise. Great startup salespeople close business

      5. Your choice of startup trumps everything else...more important than your job title, your pay or your responsibilities

      Foreword

      I first met John Gannon in early 2008. At the time I was a junior member of the investment team at Union Square Ventures. John was a student at Columbia Business School and was focused on landing a role in venture capital upon graduation in the spring. I didn’t realize it then, but he was executing a textbook (this exact textbook, Finding Startup Jobs, the one you’re about to read) process of building his startup network.

      It was an informal meeting, a couple of beers in a dive bar (literally called Dive Bar) on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Despite the informal setting, John did a great job of teasing out of me the inside baseball of landing a job in VC and the day-to-day experience of being a junior member of an investment team in a VC firm. It wasn’t until I read this book that I realized John was a man with a plan in his post-MBA career search, and our meeting was a fateful step in that plan.

      I say fateful because, fast-forward three years later, John Gannon introduced me to John Fawcett, the co-founder and CEO of Quantopian, in whom I ended up making a seed investment. This investment was one of my earliest investments at Spark Capital (where I am today a general partner), and Quantopian has now developed a wildly interesting community and very promising trajectory. Had I not taken John Gannon’s invitation back in 2008, it’s unlikely I ever would have met John Fawcett or Quantopian.

      I explain all this for one purpose: to show the power of serendipity in networking. I never could have known that a post-work drink with an aspiring VC in 2008 would lead to an investment opportunity years later, but if you cast enough birds to the wind you will find that serendipity will reward your optimism.

      It’s with this attitude, openness to serendipity, that I encourage you to proceed with reading Startup Finding Startup Jobs. John writes from direct experience, having both (A) executed the playbook he outlines to land his own jobs, multiple times and (B) been on the other end of the career search, hiring prospective startup job candidates. Throughout the book, John provides clear, practical advice, and then follows with an example from his startup network of the advice in practice. In these examples you’ll find common themes: openness to serendipity, hustle as a virtue, and the value of persistence.

      I left Union Square Ventures in 2010 and joined Spark Capital, where I have since made 11 investments in early-stage Internet startups. In most of these investments I have joined the board of directors of these companies, and as a result, I have aided in the process of interviewing many of the earliest hires these companies ended up pursuing. Based on this perspective, John is doing a great service to the startup ecosystem by writing this book. There is a real talent shortage in startups, especially at the earliest stages, and I hope John’s book will give prospective readers the inspiration and initiative to get involved in the startup community.

      There are millions of employees working at Russell 2000 companies across the world, and not all of them are a perfect fit for working in a startup. That’s OK. Startups aren’t for everyone. But, for anyone that has broken concentration from their desk job at MegaCorp, Inc and daydreamed about what it would be like to work at a startup, Finding Startup Jobs is a great way to explore the possibility of realizing that daydream. After reading this book, you should be able to qualify:

      • Whether you have the right personality for a startup. Startups are rollercoasters, with lows just as extreme as the highs.

      • Whether you’re in the right place in your life to join a startup. Startups require heroic effort week in and week out, and the time commitment can be daunting.

      • Whether you’re joining a startup for the right reasons. Startups are not a get-rich-quick solution. For every story about a startup IPO minting a handful of millionaires, there are many more about startups that couldn’t survive or thrive.

      Don’t let me scare you away. There is nothing quite like the satisfaction of helping build a startup from the earliest stages. In a startup you are making a product, sure, but you’re also making a company. Not just making, you’re Making… truly building from scratch. You’re building a company that creates more jobs, that people depend on to build their own companies, that people depend on in their personal lives, that (if you’re both good and lucky) makes a dent in the universe. This satisfaction of Making is the fuel that drives most startup employees through the difficulties I outlined above. And it’s also the last qualification I’ll offer: if you crave the satisfaction of Making, and want to turn that dial to 11, then your motive for joining a startup is in the right place.

      Qualifying whether you’re a fit for a startup career is what you’ll explore for the first half of the book. The second half is about the tactics for actually getting a job in a startup. John’s advice is clear, concise, and actionable. If you maintain persistence, the advice will be effective in helping you land a job. So stick with it; it’s great advice, but it’s not a magic bullet. The more effort you put into your startup job search (especially in Chapter 4), the more you’ll get out of it.

      The network you’re going to build by employing the techniques in this book will be invaluable, so regardless of the outcome of where you land your first startup job, the tips in this book are going to open access to a whole new community of people: startup people. I look forward to attending the meetup you organize or reading your comments on Fred Wilson’s next blog post.

      The coming attractions are over. Time to start the real show. Best of luck in your startup career search.

      See you out there...

      Andrew Parker

      General Partner, Spark Capital

      Introduction

      If you’re reading this book then you’re probably thinking about joining a startup. Clearly you’re not alone. In startup communities like the Bay Area, New York City, Boulder, and Boston, it seems like everyone works at a startup or wants to join a startup.

      There’s never been a better time to look for a startup job. Massive investments are flowing into startups and many of those companies are hiring quickly. In addition, startup job seekers have lots of resources to choose from to help them succeed in their startup job search including blogs, podcasts, meetups, and even startup schools.

      Even with all of the resources available, I still get questions like:

      • "How do I build a

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