Joining a fast-growing startup in its early stages, particularly a VC-backed one, offers a rare opportunity to dive into high-impact decisions and unique challenges that few others experience. The rapid pace and 'real-life feedback' provide an unparalleled learning curve that you won't find in more mature companies. In comparison to time spent in more mature companies where a superior is often responsible for the outcome of a decision, in early stage startups there is often a lack of more “senior people” due to being so resource constraint. Your acts will impact the success of a company 10-100x more than in a normal company.

Here are some reasons why I think joining as employee #1-50 will boost your career exponentially:

High level of ownership and responsibility

In an early-stage startup, everyone needs to work on the most crucial problems and activities at that given moment. Often, you will need to make decisions that are far above your pay grade. The frequency and importance of decisions you will work on are unparalleled to any other employment type, especially if don’t have 10+ years of experience/ seniority. You will get the freedom to shape the startup’s agenda, come up with, and implement your own solutions and learn from mistakes with immediate, real-life feedback loops.

Strong influence on crucial decisions

Hiring, shaping the product roadmap, making crucial technical or business decisions, fundraising, forming the company culture…these are dimensions that are often reserved for the leadership of a company as their impact will last years. As an early employee, you don’t just participate—you often lead pivotal decisions that shape the company’s future, from defining the tech stack to establishing the brand’s identity.

Steep growth trajectory inside the company

If things go well and the startup is growing, it means you did a great job. The first 2-3 years of a company, are the ideal time to demonstrate your ability to learn and grow with the company, giving you the perfect springboard to skip hierarchies you would otherwise need to go through in a corporate environment. Internally, you know the company better than anyone else and become a reliable source of truth for junior and senior colleagues alike.

Financial upside

Joining as one of the first employees means that your equity package is very attractive. You are receiving a much larger ESOP share to compensate for the larger risk you are taking on by joining early. The first 50 employees of a successful startup are very likely to be €-(multi-)millionaires once they can liquidate their stake. A growing number of companies are looking to give partial liquidation opportunities to employees before a big-bang exit 7-10 years after company inception. This can be done for instance as part of a fundraising round.

Career opportunities afterwards

Having been part of a successful organization from the very start gives you a unique reputation on the labor market - because there are simply not a lot of you. Founders, executives and tech operators understand that 2-3 years on paper actually compound to many more years in actual operating experience with the velocity of decisions and actions you had to make in those years. They will know that your impact as one of a couple of handful of early employees is enormous - every decision that you make and action you take can make the difference between running out of money or getting the company to the next level. This sets you up very well for founding your own company one day or for an attractive leadership role in your next startup adventure.

💡 Recommended reads

Read This Before Joining as Employee 1 to 20 at a Startup by Stacy La (employee #3 at Clover Health)
What You Learn at a Startup that Grows from $0 to $7.75 Billion in 2 Years by Dave Schools (employee #8 at Hopin)
First Startup Employees by early employees of various unicorns (Wise, Gousto, GoCardless, etc.)