With the recession, inbound requests for “networking” have gone up quite a bit. (If I’ve been hard to reach, I apologize: networking time demands currently exceed supply).
I frequently get pings from senior folks, some hoping to find an opportunity at an early stage startup. In many cases, the qualifying question is: how long can you afford to work with no salary? Here’s why that’s key.
For many software technology projects, the initial costs are all salaries (especially these days). More and more, entrepreneurs are scrapping it out and coming to the first investors with a prototype or beta, in some cases with initial market uptake. By the time of first funding, the key roles are usually already covered by that founding team, especially for product or technology positions. (Sales/marketing positions are one exception: that leadership may come on board later, as the company grows).
In other words, senior folks looking for paid positions at early stage startups may find the train’s already left for key roles.
This reflects my experience as well. It also corroborates a different data point I’m seeing, a sharp increase in business entrepreneurs having a hard time finding technical partners to get started on an initial product. Product producers are in high demand in the early stage.
Ah yes indeed. Having just spent the last year with a startup as content director, and where my salary level went from healthy to near-fatal, I know exactly what you mean.