Want to found a startup? Work at one first
I&#x27;ve worked at multiple startups sub 50 to &gt;1000 (unicorn status) and have founded and sold my own company. I&#x27;ve also worked at a few of the FAANGs. This is common advice, especially among VCs since it&#x27;s one of the key benefits used to pitch prospective employees on giving up that fat FAANG salary, but in my personal experience, it&#x27;s not so cut and dry.<p>Working in a startup will brand you as a startup person and help you meet VCs which may make it easier to raise. It&#x27;ll also show you the problems that that particular startup faces and give you n=1 degree of pattern matching. On the flip side, something like YC can give you the same benefit or just shipping a for-profit side project on the side. Additionally, given how poorly run most startups are today, I&#x27;d posit that you&#x27;re actually in more danger of learning the wrong lessons than the right lessons by joining a startup. At the end of the day, the truth is likely to be Peter Thiel&#x27;s observation that joining the right, highly successful, high growth startup as a very early employee is a great way to learn exactly 1 method of starting a successful company--the way that company did it. But if the startup you join isn&#x27;t that rocketship, you&#x27;ve only learned how to (or how not to) achieve that particular path of failure or mediocrity.<p>Not particularly great advice though, because then the challenge becomes identify those startups. And if you could do that reliably, I&#x27;d suggest you switch careers into VC instead :)