Leaving Big Tech for a Startup? These 7 Staffers Have Done Just That. – Business Insider

Few could have predicted a pandemic that had long-promised one of the worst economic recessions in modern memory would instead lead to waves of workers leaving their jobs voluntarily en masse.

Dubbed by some as the "Great Resignation", staffers have been intensely re-evaluating their working lives in record numbers. In the US around 242,000 people quit in August, bringing the total up to 4.3 million for the year, according to figures from the Labor Department.

Tech companies are far from immune from the phenomenon as workers go in search of more flexibility, a dedication to remote work, and more dynamic and challenging jobs.

For some, startups plush with VC cash and offering the prospect of listed shares have proven alluring enough to get them to give up their corporate tech jobs.

Insider spoke with seven people who made the switch from Big Tech to either join or launch a startup. Each offered insights into what it's like to join a startup, and what you should consider before making the move.

The speed and the pace of change in startups compared with large corporations was widely cited.

Colm O'Cuinneainworked at LinkedIn and Oracle before joining recruiting software company Greenhouse Software as general manager of EMEA.

"You have to build your agility," he told Insider, noting that larger companies may be more restricted.

Eshchar Ben-Shitrit, CEO and cofounder of food technology company Redefine Meat, experienced this first hand. Defined processes and long-term strategies help order and clarity, he said, but it can make large businesses slow and unaccommodating to change.

"In the first month of working in a small company, I saw projects begin, end, change, and get cancelled so quickly I felt that I gained more experience in that year, when compared to a year in a large company," he added.

Madhu Sridharan, VP of product management at alternative protein company Eat Just known for its plant-based egg had reservations about this at first.

"Decisions are made very quickly and things are able to move forward," she said. "Initially, I was worried that there wasn't enough thought given to something, or someone would not be aligned but with swift decisions, we're able to move projects along faster and work more efficiently."

Not only does the pace undergo substantial change, so too does the weight of day-to-day decisions. Vivek Sharma, who heads up Eat Just's process development, said that critical decisions were needed on a "weekly basis".

"Teams are looking at you to make the calls in a timely manner," the former DuPont Nutrition scientist said. "It is intense but I love every minute of it."

Ann-Marie Smith, head of people at payroll operations provider Payslip, has 15 years of experience within HR and recruiting, including at telecommunications and insurance companies.

Despite having to focus on current needs and provide recommendations quickly, she said there were additional chances to be creative and have meaningful input at a startup.

"Where else can an intern ask a CEO a question about their work?" Payslip's Smith said about startups. "It's a fantastic opportunity for those starting out in their careers to have immediate access and openness to all levels of management."

Workplace relationships and culture also benefits from this. "I'd have to say the energy, the freedom and the freshness was exhilarating," she added. "The lack of corporate politics meant we could really gel as a team and pursue our shared goals."

Eat Just's Sridharan reiterated both points. "I was shocked by how willing the team was to test out new ideas, validate them and scale up at fast pace," she said. "This felt new, exciting, and impactful."

Ben-Shitrit, the Redefine Meat cofounder, acknowledged that the "comfort, status, and ability to see a future laid out for you" at a large corporation makes it hard to leave.

"However, the thrill, excitement, stress, and opportunity of a small company is something one must experience," he said. "Waiting too long in a big company means you lose the opportunity to learn the true nature of yourself and your ability."

The boss urges anyone thinking of making the move to assume the large company will always be there, and will rehire an employee after they gain "the equivalent of a decade of work experience" in three to four years at a startup.

Jos Martn Quesada, who moved from Google and McKinsey before founding fitness startup Krew, told Insider roles are shaped by the person in them.

"Working on customer success? You can learn how to build a product by advocating for your customers' feedback and seeing it turned into features," he said. "Working in product development? You can move from opinion to fact by learning some data analysis to make sense of the flurry of usage data."

While an "ambitious" person has freedom and room to grow,the flip side of the coin is that must be ready to deal with uncertainty, Quesada added.

That experience will be across a range of roles not just what someone was hired for.

"In a startup environment, it's often all hands on deck, and sometimes you need to pitch in where you can be most useful, even if it's outside of your expertise," Madhu said.

Smith agreed and added that people in the industry must move as fast as it does.

"Be prepared to be involved in absolutely everything," she said. "You must maintain your priorities and avoid becoming fixated on any one task. Although things change and adapt so quickly, just go with the flow and pace of those around you."

No matter the role, an employee's level of input is likely to be significant compared with a larger company, according to O'Cuinneain. "You know, you've the opportunities to provide ideas and strategy and critical customer success at every level," he said. "For somebody new, you know, coming out of college, that's a massive opportunity just to be able to build that breadth and skill set."

Many startups won't have polished processes or "plug and play" workflow.

Sridharan, who previously worked at Mattel and IBM, is "constantly challenged" to be creative and solutions-orientated in her current role. "I wish I'd implemented this entrepreneurial thinking and problem solving from dayone at Eat Just, instead of seeking out existing processes or systems that may not always be the most efficientprocedure," she said.

Some people may be held back by confidence.

"You need to be braver in a smaller organization to be more vocal in your opinions," O'Cuinneain said. "In large organizations, often you're doing what you're told versus coming up with the answer. In a startup, the opportunity is is massive and really is about being brave and which bets you're going to place."

Startups are "more centered on survival than the normal way of doing business," according to Ben-Shitrit, who added that teams are expected to do more with less.

"Understanding that success is the only option, and that lack of experience, resources and even people isn't a reason," he said. "However, once you get used to it, it becomes a sort of superpower."

Sharma described being part of a startup as being "a member of a Formula 1 pit crew" not a small cog in a big machine. "When the team is small, your contribution to the company's success is evident and easily measured," he said. "Early on, it had dawned on me how impactful my work was going to be, and I was ready to contribute."

Startups may look exciting, have good PR and great career prospects, but they are inherently risky and many fail.

Holly Stephens moved from Google to a number of smaller startups before founding transcription startup Subly. She advises anyone to "take the emotion away from the opportunity" and to ask the right questions to recruiters or founders.

Before joining a startup, Stephens said a candidate should ask how it makes money, what its revenue projections are, how much investment or grants it has received, and what its runway and growth plans are like.

"Don't be afraid to meet the team as part of your interview process and decision," she added.

"Make sure that the risk you are taking with joining a startup will help you achieve your goals such as; career growth, learning or knowledge building."

O'Cuinneain recommended asking for data, financial performance, and exploring the product-market fit to get a sense of the business' future. When joining Greenhouse Software, O'Cuinneain looked at who the company was working with and researched individuals, such as the founders.

"I listened to what they where saying, whether it's podcasts in the media and interviews," he said. "I looked at what people were saying about them on social media, what customers were saying about them, what potential candidates and former employees were saying about them on Glassdoor."

O'Cuinneain described joining a startup as a "leap of faith" where you end up putting a "lot of trust in the individuals with whom you work with."

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Leaving Big Tech for a Startup? These 7 Staffers Have Done Just That. - Business Insider