Risk It All Going To The Shiny AI Startup?

Transcript is auto-generated and may contain errors.

Hey folks, we're going to the comments again. Apologies. I don't have my microphone. It's in my car which is in a repair shop which is not going to be back for another few days and then I'll be in Africa. So, I wanted to get some more videos done. This one is from Epic Technav. Thanks for asking questions, man. I appreciate you being here. Um, this is about going to different companies and in particular startups and even more specifically around AI startups. And so, um, they're going on to say that, you know, they're at a top or currently. So, like in their country, arguably the I I don't know if I would go as far as to say it's like, oh, it's comfy. I don't really know that, but let's let's assume for the sake of conversation, paid reasonable um comfy enough, right? There's probably more stability in this type of role.

Um, and I think that's the point of saying like they're kind of working at a top or in their country. So, it's not like they're in a bad spot, okay, to to start things off. Um, but they're going on to say that they're getting uh some some reach out from recruiters and stuff like where the pay is like 50 to 60% more. Um, but that's going to mean something different, right? So, what does that mean? They're anticipating things like uh, you know, longer hours, maybe on call, that kind of thing. Um, and they're going on to say like, okay, well, if I were to balance that where I currently am, if I can log off at 5 and kind of be done for the day, uh, kind of what's that going to look like if I'm at a startup? And so, I think this is a really great question to ask and try to navigate because I don't think it's a trivial thing to answer.

And my disclaimer right away is like I think this will be completely different for everyone. So, uh, and as they mentioned in their comment, they're not looking for like the answer. It's like kind of like just to to talk about it. So, I think that's the right framing. Um, so I think a lot of what's been called out in the comment is genuinely things that I would try to put in front of someone to say, maybe you want to think about these things. Um, my my younger self, right, uh, I I worked at a startup. Um, it was different times obviously in terms of the industry and the job market, but also like for me at the time like I didn't have a girlfriend. I wasn't married, neither of those things at the same time. I didn't have kids. I didn't have pets, right? I ended up having a dog for the first time of my own uh a few years into like working at a at a startup.

So, I didn't have like any responsibilities. Um, internships helped me pay down most of my debt. So I was able to, you know, to get uh uh a mortgage and stuff like soon after starting work because I had already paid down like my my school debt and stuff like that. So I feel like I had I could take some risk especially early on. Um but I'm also like pretty riskadverse. So I ended up being very fortunate to find a startup that I felt like was actually feeling pretty stable. But I also know for myself I like startups. I had done six internships at small companies and like I like the vibe of being at a small company. I'm at Microsoft now which might seem kind of backwards for that reason but um I I know that that was something that I I liked. Um now of course being my first full-time job out of school that was certainly like a bit of a dice roll, right?

A bit of a a chance to take I think like I got I would say it's luck. I would love to sit here and say like, "Oh, I researched the most perfect decision." No. Um, risk profile at the time and what I was after looked different. I figured if I can work my butt off and I can find a good spot, I'm happy to go work my butt off and then hope for for something more out of that in the future. And so, I think that a decision I make then versus now would look very different. And that's why I want to kind of talk about this, right? It's like uh now I am married. I don't have kids, but I am married. Uh we have pets. Um now, like now my responsibility is not just me as a bachelor kind of doing whatever I want.

It's like I absolutely need to make sure that I'm being responsible and thinking about my wife, thinking if we plan to have children, like how how am I setting myself up for that? That might not be a concern at all for you, not something on your mind, and that's totally fine. But for me, that's something I have to think about now. And so, um, I'm already pretty risk adverse. So, having stability like a lot of these things like will sort of keep me fixed in place for for right or wrong, right? I'm not trying to say one is good or bad or whatever. It's just that that's kind of the the rationale that I have to to start applying. So, I think when it comes to startups and big tech, um, and I should also add, and I realize there's layoffs and stuff at companies.

So, when I'm I'm going to say something like stability in terms of larger companies, I'm not trying to say, oh, there's no such things as layoffs or like there's no risk of that. When I talk about stability, I mean usually the larger companies aren't shipping one single product to one like small user base and then hoping that they can pay out people like pay their employees at the end of the month. There's genu like generally speaking more stability in that regard where it's not like oh are we going to be underwater um you know by the end of the week kind of thing. uh are people are people willing to work without a paycheck. Like you don't really have that statistically speaking as much. Whereas at startups, you may have that. You might have startups that have taken on uh investor money and maybe people that have never led companies before and they're like, "Oh we got all this money.

Let's pay all these people. We'll get ping pong tables at everyone's desk." And then all of a sudden there's no money left and they haven't started making money. So like there's all sorts of risks associated with business purely um that come with startups. And again, I'm not saying that the startup you're at or will be at will be like this or not, but I think if you go look at stats on this, like most startups do not succeed. It's just like it's just statistics. And so that's not to discourage you from doing it. And I think that's an important thing to mention because um yes, you know, if you're if you're confident that you're not dealing with a recruiter that's like, you know, uh like a scammer or something like that, I think there's a lot more of this happening now.

But if you know what's legitimate, the company, even though it's a startup, is is real, um, and you're not like worried about that, and the pay is higher, like if you're not worried about all of that being fake, and hopefully you can figure that kind of stuff out and have some confidence there. Um, then I think you're the conversation shifts. It's like you probably will be working more. And that's not to say that, you know, you you won't find work life balance, but I would probably expect that you're going to be working more at a startup. In fact, I would think that probably most startups expect that you are, too. Um, some places will say, "Oh, no." Like, don't worry about that. We're different. You'll you'll find out when you're there. Um, if there's, you know, people you can when you're interviewing, if you can try to I don't know, like tease that out of people to see what it's like.

Um, but my my mental model of this is probably not really fair. Like I'm definitely biased because for me, if I were going to a startup, I I'm not saying that you can't have work life balance, but I would be personally probably forfeiting work life balance. Like that would be a conscious decision for me where I'm like I am probably not going to have work life balance and I accept that. And so what is the trade right in this case? If they're offering you I'm pointing at my phone that's down here. If they're offering you higher salary or something, that might be great. Um if there's stock, like that might be great. But also like you have to have a company that ends up being worth money for the stock to be worth anything, right? Like that that's the reality of it. And so I think if you're at a place and you're like, I really believe in the mission.

I think this is going to take off and you want to bust your ass. Like that could that could be something awesome and big and great. But again, statistically speaking, that's not how it works. So I think you have to be like willing to take that risk. And I think you have to be comfortable saying like if I were to do this and statistically speaking it fizzles out or doesn't work. Um am I okay with that? Right. I I personally think that startups can be one of the very best learning opportunities because there is so much going on that it's almost impossible to not be learning things because it's chaos. And I don't mean for that to sound like a terrible thing. I mean like there's so much going on or hopefully there is.

If it's a if it's a startup that's you know trying to do something it's probably going to feel chaotic and that will mean that there's going to be things that you don't know how to do that you got to figure out um that there aren't necessarily experts for that company's trying to figure it out for the first time. There's going to be a ton of learning. So um while yes on the the offer right might say like oh there's going to be more money. I don't know how long is that going to last. Um, if there's stock, is the stock actually going to be worth anything? Don't know. Um, your work life balance, how much are you willing to to budge on that? It might be something where you can set some boundaries and you're like, that's just how I am and that's fine and it works.

And there might be other situations where you're like either you or the company is like not really having that same expectation. So, I would heir on the side of assuming it's probably going to be busier than normal. Um, and then how long is that going to last? Don't know. And again, not to discourage you, I'm just saying like statistically speaking, these things don't go well. So, um, I think it's just about managing that uh that risk tolerance. And I think that depending, you know, this is for Epic Technav who asked the question, but if you're not Epic Technav and you're thinking about this, your risk tolerance might look very different. That might change dramatically for you over time in life. Like certainly uh I am even less risk tolerant um somehow. But you know, I've made some videos on this. It's something to keep revisiting because you will change and value different things at different points in your life.

So, um, you know, I've told myself at this point in my life because I I know how I work, uh, I I like to work hard like to a fault because I I can't balance things properly. I shouldn't say I can't. I do. I currently and have been doing a poor job of of balancing things because I like to work. I like to focus on things and and make progress on them. Like, that's very fulfilling for me. And so I've said this on multiple videos before, but if I were to go to a startup at this point in my life, it would not be to someone else's startup. It would be to my own startup because I know if I'm going to be in a startup again, I have from my own experience, I've seen what it took to be in a startup for it to be successful.

Not to say that it can't work other ways, but it took a lot of effort from a lot of people to to do that. And I think that I don't have that in me for someone else because I don't know what kind of guarantee they could possibly make that would make me convinced of that. Um there's a probably a select few people that if they had approached me and said I have a startup idea and like we're going that even if it was not my company I might be convinced like okay this is going somewhere. Um, but otherwise, like I don't know if I could be bothered. And that's no hard feelings to anyone I've ever worked with. Um, it's just I don't think I have it in me to do someone else's startup again because of how much time and energy goes into it. So, um, hope that helps to think through, but I don't think there's a right or wrong answer here.

And, um, I think the other thing I would mention too is like yes, changing jobs and stuff can be a very big decision. Um, and it's not permanent, right? So, if you were to go somewhere else, if it doesn't work out, it's not the end of the world. It may be difficult to get another job, that kind of thing. But it's not impossible, right? I think that you and other people watching this are are people that are, you know, you're focused on trying to improve, trying to be better. You're going to work hard, you're going to try accomplishing your goals. And if you keep busting your ass, even if the startup didn't work out, like you will find other opportunities. You will pursue those. You will do great things. So just keep that in mind. I'm not trying to talk you out of the startup. I'm just trying to remind you like risk tolerance.

So hope that helps. I will see you in the next one. And then another little co-pilot sneak peek. It's a lot of stuff going on. See you later.