Top 12 Questions To Ask When Joining An Early Stage Start Up 2023

Starting off something new fills our head with all sorts of questions isn’t it? And it troubles us more if it about our career. We need to make some very important decisions that would benefit us in the long run.
There are people who choose to be very secure with their future and hesitate to make some different decisions but if you want to do something other than what everyone else is following, then maybe you can join a start up and work in it. Rather than joining a very big and already established company. But you should look at some factors for sure. You must not follow something blindly.
It makes sense does it not? So let us dive into the questions that we should look into before doing what we are going to opt for.
There may be questions other than these that may come to your mind and if you feel necessary to ask them you may but for the time being let us see the questions below.

Questions To Ask When Joining An Early Stage Start Up

How much will you benefit from it?

Now, you must not think that you will benefit nothing from it, as it is a start-up. No, that should not be the case. After all, you have spent so much on your education just to yield an outcome.
You must atleast be able to show your parents that you are doing something with your life that has a return it is not all in the vain. You as an individual also must look at it that way concerned about your profit and of course you must think about the company too.

What will be your position for the company?

You will be investing so much of your life for the betterment of the company and what if your position does not matter at all.
You must completely make sure about how much your position would mean to the company and to you after these many years of hard work during which you would be working double as compared to your friends and also enjoying lesser benefits from them for the time being surely.
But do make sure about this and see if it aligns with your goals.

Is the company ready for the market or would it need much more time?

You must check about this information very well that is the company market ready or not are the products or the services already launched or not?
By getting to know about these things and having a look at the data of how the products or the services have preformed or are performing, what is the response to them can help you understand how will they behave in the future.
Knowing about these can also help you choose the right company that has fewer possibilities to fail. Many companies that are not market ready tend to fail faster than the ones who are there already competing.

What is the runway and burn rate of the company currently?

The statistics that you should look at before joining any start-up is the runway and the burn rate. These are the two technical terms that may not be known to a few people. For them let me explain burn rate is the speed by which the company spends its cash and runway is the amount of time before the company runs out of its cash present with it currently.
It can give you the idea about the management of the company. It is one of the most crucial things that tell about the future of that company. The skill one has to manage a company tells a lot.

How much revenue does the company make currently?

As it is a start up you cannot expect much of revenue but usually there are three stages of revenue. These are that:

• · Firstly, it generates no revenue.
• · Secondly, that it generates that much amount as needed to cover its own expenses.
• · Thirdly, that it makes profit meaning that it covers its expenses and also leaves some amount behind.

Keeping these three points in mind you can look out for what you want in terms of revenue and your salary and profit.

How much percentage does your share represent in the company?

It is not quite a point thinking over or being happy over how many shares you have but the rather than paying attention to the percentage that they make.
It would be a bad deal if you keep looking at just the numbers and the percentage that would represent is very less and not good. It would be not much of a wise choice then. Go and get to know more about them and secure a good percentage of shares in the company. It is more important than just numbers and you have to understand that.

What is the growth availability for you from the company itself?

Okay, one of the most important questions if you are a career oriented person and you want more out of your just job or work is to see how much can you grow with the company. Keep aside the thought of the growth of the company and see how much how much will you grow?
Will you be given chances to display your other skills that you have or will you get to know about things will you have experience, where will you be able to use all of that or how will all these help you grow? These are the questions that you must ask yourself if you want to see yourself grow.

Will you be just assigned works or will your opinions also matter?

You must make sure about this, that you are being heard and your opinions are taken into consideration.
It should not be the case that you are just given the responsibility to do things or see if the things are being done and your opinions are not taken in account.
No one would be able to work in that environment, right? Where one is not taken into consideration or their opinions that should not be the case. This is the thing that you must have the access to. Everyone wants to be heard and be listened to and this is the thing that every company should provide whether it is a start up or a well established one.

How things are handled? How well is there coping mechanism?

The way a company manages its losses and the way they cope up with them is worth paying attention to.
It gives you a lot of insight about the team. It’s a lot of fun and problematic managing things when nothing seems to make sense. Be sure to look for this point or else it would be very boring working in a company that only orders its employees to work in a certain way and holds its employees the reason when things go wrong.

How things are communicated to the higher people?

We all know how tough it is to reach the people in charge of certain things. There should not be this barrier that you cannot reach to the people directly when things go wrong and they are not conveyed by the messengers.

• You are smart enough to get the point of what I am trying to tell you.
• Fair enough let’s move to the next ones.
• What are the policies about having vacations?

In this era where everyone is concerned about their work life balance especially the younger generation you should ask in details about the policies that they have regarding vacations.
It is very important that you get some time with your family and friends that does not involve your work. It has to be something that is compatible to you. You must look for this and then decide.

Is there an option of working from home? Does the company promote it?

After Covid-19 we have been introduced to the option work from home widely. It was not completely unknown but was not used that much. After the lockdown we got an idea how it felt like and what it really was.
Now, this point should be taken into consideration that will you be able to work from home or not as things do not remain the same every time.
They can change and so you have to keep a safe option with you always.

Conclusion:

Joining a start up, gaining experience, sometimes enjoying your time, sometimes taking all the stress in your life, finding out different methods of bringing yourself and the team out of the then current scenarios you get to experience many things. You connect to them emotionally too if they are the right ones. There are way more things that joining a star up gives you if you go beyond seeing the finances and all.
These were the questions that were being talked about in the above paragraphs. Do read them and keep them in your mind and after being sure make the right decision that you want to and will be happy and contented with.