Tech startups have gotten a lot of hype. Most people say that it’s the easiest road to get into, the path to a lucrative future. But the truth is that the way to business capital perdition is paved with the best of intentions. Get to know if you’re entering tech startup business for the right reasons or if these myths still trap you:
Paid marketing work is only for losers.
You might find one of your tech-savvy folks smirking when you suggest the idea of onboarding a digital marketing agency or specialist. A common misconception about marketing tech is that it’s like sex; you are a loser if you have to pay extra for this kind of service.
The bigger tech conglomerates of today started in garages and humble abodes, but they did not scrimp on marketing techniques. Some lucked out with word of mouth, but giant tech firms of today that started from scratch benefited from content marketing with high-quality content, social media management, and viral campaigns that made them the current household brand names they are today.
There is no avenue for corruption.
At first, it can seem like smaller startup environments have less of the bureaucracy and red tape of larger corporations. But small habits that remain unchecked while the business is small can snowball into more significant violations and corruption later on. The typical office politics of favoritism or unequal wages can still penetrate even the leanest of startup cultures. The effects can be quite disastrous if there are no many culture checks from across the board. Books have been written about how corruption can penetrate tech startups.
There are minimal offline logistics.
Even if there is a predominantly remote or small overhead on operations, every startup still needs a separate admin person for human resources and services. You might need to find surveyors in Salt Lake City, for example, for properties that you need to acquire for production purposes. You might also need some necessary business permit renewals, participating in civic activities in the local community to establish goodwill and other traditional logistics that you won’t usually find in tech startup manuals.
It almost always leads to an IPO or a bed of investors.
The competition is incredibly stiff. The tech bubble perpetuated the road to IPO in early 2000. There is significant interest in investing in tech startups, but solid management and the sustainability of the product are what will make it last longer in the game.
It involves a few hours.
Startups can sustain the narrative of work-life balance and flexibility in work hours. But the work is divided with fewer hands on deck, which makes the workload more intense than usual. You can find one team member having one official role but juggling 3-4 job descriptions in its larger corporate equivalent. Flexible hours do not always mean less work. You might need to hustle more in a startup than in a corporate conglomerate that has more people to do the heavy lifting.
In the end, it takes a lot of grit and innovation to make it in the tech industry. It might seem like a handful to swallow, but the benefits far outweigh the risks.
