Why more young people should join startups
Reasons to join a startup
When you’re early in your career, the most valuable thing you can optimize for isn’t salary, prestige, or stability. It’s learning velocity. This will compound for the rest of your life.
Startups compress time: You’re not one layer in a corporate machine, you’re on the front lines, shipping real things, wearing multiple hats, and seeing firsthand how products get built, how decisions get made, and how companies win or die. You don’t just “do your job”, you solve problems, fill gaps, and earn trust through action. That kind of environment forces growth. It teaches you how to think like an owner. If you don’t solve those problems, the startup might not be around much longer
Big companies offer structure, startups offer exposure: You’ll sit next to the founder, talk to customers, and probably take on responsibilities you’re probably underqualified for. That’s the point. You’ll gain reps faster, develop scar tissue earlier, and leave with a sharper sense of what you’re good at and what truly matters to you. If you want to try a new software tool that will make you 20% more productive, you don’t need to wait 6 months for compliance and IT to approve it, you just do it
Your network becomes stronger: There’s a unique kind of bond that forms when you’re in the trenches, wearing too many hats, chasing deadlines, and figuring it out as you go. You make friends faster through shared stress and late nights than you ever could through polished networking events. These are the people who will vouch for you, hire you, start companies with you. The startup world might feel chaotic, but the relationships you forge in that chaos are some of the most enduring and valuable you’ll ever have
Your career will advance faster: Startups don’t have layers of red tape or rigid promotion cycles, they have urgency and need. If you do great work, you won’t wait two years for a title change or three years to manage a team. You’ll be given more responsibility because the company simply needs you to step up. In a smaller org, impact is obvious, and people who deliver get noticed and rewarded
You have the least amount of personal responsibilities today: You don’t have a mortgage, kids, or golden handcuffs which means you can take big swings, learn quickly, and bounce back faster with less worry
Your downside is capped, your upside is limitless: Even if the startup fails (which most do!), you’ll walk away with better instincts, a better network, and real experience. Yes, the kind that hiring managers and investors care about. If the startup works, you’ll be part of something rare: a generational company that you helped build from the ground up
Why startups aren’t as risky as you think
Most startups fail, but that doesn’t mean you failed: You will learn things that most never will even if the startup fails. Every startup is different, and by nature, your experience will be unique. That said, there’s a surprising amount of overlap in what you’ll learn, how to move quickly, wear multiple hats, and solve problems without a playbook. No matter the company, the learning curve is steep and incredibly rewarding
Compensation isn’t as bad as most people think: If you’re coming from Big Tech or high finance, yes, joining a startup may mean taking a pay cut. But let’s put that in perspective: you’re likely still earning a six-figure salary, more than enough to live comfortably. And in exchange, you gain something far more valuable. A shot at doing work that actually matters, building something from zero, and making a real dent in the universe. That kind of tradeoff isn’t a sacrifice. It’s an investment in a more meaningful life
You can get another job: Companies of all sizes value the experiences you gain at a startup. Startups offer younger folks in particular earlier exposure to responsibility, the chance to manage others, and meaningful opportunities for growth that can be hard to find in more structured environments. Your network also becomes quite robust and tightly-knit as other folks at startups recognize the shared