The Benefits of Working for a Tech Startup
Find out what non conventional benefits tech startups provide to attract and retain employees
On October 15th, I received an automatic generated email congratulating me of having 50% of my stock option grant vested, I suddenly realized, that date was my second anniversary working with Virgin Hyperloop, a transportation technology startup, as its in-house Senior Design Architect.
What is a Startup?
Before we go any further, let’s get something straight first. The term “Startup” has been widely misused in recent years for anything that is ubiquitous of not making any money, from your daughter’s lemonade stand to your YouTube channel that yet to be monetized. And let me be blunt here: just because you already ordered 100 business cards with a title CEO from Vistaprint for US$15, doesn’t qualify those fruitless endeavors as a startup neither. If you feel insulted, well, then this article is not for you. This article is for those who genuinely want to know the benefits of working a well-established technology startup.
Although there is no official definition for a startup, but in general, a startup is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable economic model. Startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder or co-founders.
Disclaimer
I spent more than a decade working for non-startup companies from small businesses to corporate firms. Virgin Hyperloop is the only startup that I’ve ever worked for. So my perspective is limited to my two years of experience working for the company. However, after talking with many of my friends who are currently working for other startups such as SpaceX, WeWork, etc. Virgin Hyperloop’s benefits are pretty consistent with the “industry standards”, if such thing exists.
Pet Friendly Environment
I always wanted to have a dog since I was a child. However, I didn’t want my dog to wait 10 hours every day for me to return home. It is equivalent to 70 dog hours. It is cruel. That’s why I didn’t get a dog while I was busy climbing the corporate ladder in my early careers.
3 months after joining Virgin Hyperloop, I got my first dog. On day one that I took him to the office, maybe he was nervous, he took a nasty shit right next to our company’s co-founder Josh Giegel during his video interview, almost cost me my dream job…
As he started getting acclimated to the place, he realized that Virgin Hyperloop was a paradise. I thought that I was excited to go to work in the morning, but it was nothing compared to him. Not even the leather front seat of my brand new Tesla Model 3 was able to keep him in place. He was literally running towards the office to find his friends, both humans and dogs, every single morning.
Some people think that dogs create distraction in the office, but studies show that well behaved dogs in the office actually raise work morale, increase work productivities, reduce stress level, and help an organization retain its employees.
You probably noticed that I was using past tense. When COVID hit and it was later found out that pets are able to carry the coronavirus, I highly doubt that we will be allowed to bring our dogs back to the office in the post pandemic world.
Unlimited Vacation
“As a full time engineering employee, you have unlimited vacation.” I couldn’t believe my ears when Talent Ops was going over the benefit guide with me. I started daydreaming of myself living on a private island where no one can find me. Yes, theoretically you can take the entire year off and still get paid. However, as good as it sounds, no one dare enough to abuse that policy.
First of all, if you are gone for an extended period of time and the company still functions perfectly without you, then your role is completely redundant, and I guarantee that your direct supervisor will notice that. Second, your promotion and salary increase for next year are based on your annual performance review. If you are absent from work for a long period of time, there will barely be any performance left for the managers to review. So don’t ask why your colleague who has a sleeping bag under his desk moves up faster than you do. Last but not least, when your entire team is working crazily hard days and nights, it also creates a peer pressure preventing you from enjoying your piña colada in Mexico.
So even though we have unlimited vacation, I find myself actually taking less day offs compared to working for corporate firms. Just to give you an idea. Now is already November and our entire team has not taken any vacation other than some sick leaves, partly because of COVID, and partly because of some major milestones to hit. However, if you are working on something that you enjoy, with people that you like, for a mission that is beyond yourself, every day is like a vacation! It may sound hypocritical, but once you taste it, you will know exactly what I mean.
Time Sheet
For someone who spent every minute for more than a decade worrying about billable hours and utilization rate, I was shocked (in an extremely positive way) to find out that I don’t have to fill in time sheet in Virgin Hyperloop. For those who are new to these terms, “billable hours” are the hours that you can charge to a project to make money for your company, while “utilization rate” is the number of billable hours divided by the total hours you worked that week. The higher the percentage, the better. That means that you are a better cash cow than your coworker.
Just because there is no more requirement of filling out time sheet, doesn’t mean you can watch YouTube videos all day long in the office. There are still tons of works that need to be done. In a startup, we are not only inventing a product, but also building a brand. And for any pre-revenue companies that heavily rely on investors’ money to survive, one will argue that the latter is more important than the former. A one hour presentation at a major conference probably will bring more value than 100 engineering billable hours. In a startup, you wear multiple hats. One day you are managing a team of ten, the other day you are getting your hands dirty to get some shit done.
To me, the elimination of time sheet from my daily routine totally free me up to focus on what really matters. It gives me the autonomy to define my own scope of work, to think about how I want to develop my own department, and what values can I bring to the company. Startups are relatively young companies, so whatever I do, large or small, one thing is for sure: It will create a ripple effect in the future.
Free Lunch
“There is no such thing called free lunch.” I heard this phase so many times that I can even say it in reverse order. Turn out there is such thing! Not only that it was free, but it was also in buffet style!
Every day around 11:00am, a food vendor would arrive at courtyard of our LAHQ (Los Angeles Headquarters) and start setting things up at the lunch area just adjacent to the courtyard. At around 11:30am, hungry employees started lining up. Sitting only 20 feet away from the lunch area, I had the unfair advantage of getting the food first.
Lunch time was my favorite time of the day. Not only that it’s all you can eat, but the whole company suddenly transformed into an informal collaboration platform. You could grab your food and sit at any table either inside the building or outside at the foyer of the courtyard. You could join the conversations with other teams that you didn’t have an opportunity to work with. Our CEO even set up informal lunch chat with new hires to understand their goals and needs. The intangible value that was generated out from the lunch time outweighed the cost of the lunch by multiple folds in my opinion.
You probably noticed that I was using past tense again. The pandemic took away a lot of things from us, and unfortunately the free lunch in our company would be one of them.
Stock Options
There is a misconception among the general public that people working in startups get paid more compared to other companies. This is not entirely true. For strategic hires especially for C-suite positions such as CEO or CFO in which they have good reputation, unique experience, and extensive network in the industry, more often than not you have to pay a premium to bring them over. However, for most other employees, the salary is just the same as other non-startup companies, if not lower.
In order to attract and retain the talents without paying a king’s ransom, stock option is a powerful tool. By having the stock of the company, you own a certain percentage of the company. Your financial success is tied to the company. If the company takes off, you will be rewarded handsomely. Many startup employees turned millionaires overnight after IPO (Initial Public Offering). Anyone who told you that stock option is not one of their reasons for joining a startup is not your true friend nor an honest human being, unless he or she is already filthily rich.
However, there is no guarantee of success, especially for a startup. Statistically, only 10% of startups can make it to the finish line. The same stock that can potentially make you a millionaire, can also become worthless one day. Some people see this as a financial gamble, so they opt for the safer route by settling on a stable 9–5 job, hoping that they can save enough money to retire at the golden age.
Well, I am not so sure what’s so golden about that age when you can barely walk and have to rely on your spouse to clean up your pee bag. To me, the safest route is often the most dangerous route. If there is an opportunity that can expedite my financial freedom by 10 to 15 years, even if the chance is less than 1%, I will take it without a blink.
What Now?
When our office implemented the WFH (Work-From-Home) policy on March 15th, there was less than 100 confirmed COVID cases in the county of Los Angeles. Yesterday (November 5th), the U.S. just broken another grim milestone of topping 120,000 confirmed cases, 4 months after Dr. Fauci, whom was criticized by many so-called experts as an alarmist, precisely predicted it in front of Congress. No matter how much that I miss our LAHQ, going back to the office is now like a distant dream. Also, after working remotely from another country for more than 3 months, I am highly resistant to go back to California now. Once you taste cocaine, there is no turning back…
How this pandemic is going to shape the startup culture is still yet to be determined. However, one thing for sure is that the post pandemic world will be quite different than the one we used to know. Some benefits that I mentioned above will go away, some will remain. In a time of uncertainty, more and more people are opting for security and stability. To keep the talents in a startup during and after this unusual time so that we can make it to the finish line as a team, our Talent Ops really has a daunting task in front of them.
