Why Startups Are Not All Riches and Glamour

A lot of people have the misconception that a technology startup is a glorious and awesome job. In some cases, yes, it can be, but most startup companies are not Facebook or Google. Most startups fail in which money is lost and egos are crushed. Starting an information technology company in which a few programmers rise to glory in just a few short years such as the Instagram phenomenon is incredibly rare, and most people at startups wind up having to look for new jobs after they have failed. Here are just some of the reasons why startups are not all glory, and why most people should be weary of stepping into the lion’s den of the startup world.

1. Finding A+ team players without money is nearly impossible.

2. Investors do not invest an idea, they need to see something first. Building a product with little to no money is also really-really hard.

3. Balancing Work and Social life is incredibly difficult; Work will dominate if you want to succeed. You will lose friends and many of your relationships may suffer greatly.

4. Competitors with more money can copy your products and services and crush you in an instant. Many startups have had this happen to them.

5. Consistently working ridiculous hours is incredibly draining physically and mentally.

6. Retaining talent is really hard when Google, Facebook, and the other big tech giants can offer double or triple what you can.

7. Balancing customer acquisition and customer support is amazingly difficult when you have little money.

8. Sometimes you have to rebuild something that you thought was a good idea, but find out that you had not thought the idea out as well as you had planned, and days if not weeks of work can be wasted. This is incredibly painful when you are a new company without a lot of resources.

9. Venture Capitalists can quickly take control of a company if they feel it is not being managed right, and often times the founders of a company can wind up getting kicked out!

10. It is really hard to get sales and new customers without the credibility of an established brand.

11. The clock is ticking every month. If you did not get funding there is only so long you can build up a company with barely anything in the bank, and if you did, you are losing money every month until you become profitable.

12. The industry is changing incredibly fast. You have to constantly be on your toes to adapt to an environment and technology landscape that is literally changing every hour.

13. There is no one above you to help. You and your team is all that stands between success and failure, when something breaks or goes wrong, you only have yourself to blame.

14. It is almost impossible to get your mind off of your startup, even if you want to relax you cannot. The all-consuming thought of success or failure will always dwindle in the back of your mind. All of your hard work could be lost, and years of slaving away for practically no money could be all for nothing.

15. Staying positive after a rough week or month is not easy. Your server may have gone down, you have an angry customer. A million things could make your week a living hell, yet you have to go into every week believing good things will come, even if things are not going in your favor.

Still think you want to create or join a startup? You might want to think again. To really succeed in a startup you have to be unebelievably persistent and in many cases willing to work for a lot less than you are worth. You are also not gauranteed riches after you sacrifice long hours for little pay, so if this does not sound like a risk you want to take, I suggest looking for a different type of job.