Founding a successful company takes smarts, guts, and a bit of luck; we hold these truths to be self-evident. What it also takes, and what gets talked about less, is the ability to be a leader and a listener. If you know you want to start a company one day, start your career at a startup. Here’s why.
Learn From Leaders
If you see “founder” as your future title, the best way to get there is to find founders you connect with, and go work for them. Look for founders who are smart, adaptable, and empathetic. Look for folks who’ve done it before. Look for leaders who value the same things you do. At a startup, you’ll be able to spend much more time with your CEO or CTO than you might at a larger organization.
Learn the Languages
One of the best things about startups is that you are almost certainly going to be exposed to projects outside of Engineering. You’ll work closely with Product, and learn the balance between making your customers happy vs. what your product can actually do. You’ll work closely with Design, and in turn learn from people who are brilliant at understanding what your customer wants and thinks. You’ll work with folks on the business side of things, and learn how to be customer-driven. Above all else, you’ll learn how to communicate effectively with everyone within the startup ecosystem. One of my favorite founders was an MIT PhD who had the uncanny ability to be deeply technical with Engineering, but turn around and pump up the Sales org at a sales kick-off. That is some serious emotional intelligence, and makes for an exceptional leader.
A Crash Course in Chaos > Any MBA
Even the most beautifully run startups exist, by their very nature, in a state of chaos. At any given point in time, a smart leader is going to be running at least three experiments to see what sticks -- and if they’re not, they’re probably not moving fast enough. Learning how to operate effectively within chaos is one of the best things you can learn in order to be a strong founder, both for your future company, and for yourself. Leading a company is a marathon, not a sprint. Figure out what you need to do to get into marathon mode; this could be running, yoga, rock climbing, no-meeting-Wednesdays, deleting Slack off your phone, or anything at all. Just figure out what’s scalable for you.
Last thing -- take risks when they’re cheap. Working at a startup is a whole lot less expensive than going to Wharton, and if you find the right team, you’ll learn how to hone your craft while also learning how to be a strong leader.