🤔 should one work before startup?

get asked "should I work before doing a startup?"

...if you're even considering not doing a startup, then yes, it's very strong signal that you should work instead

(b/c, TBH, most of the enterpreneurs that I know that have stuck with entreprenership, are ones where they didn't really think there was any other option for them)

but, if you're in the "I wanna do a startup, but maybe, I should work first camp, and maybe in the future"... then that's fine! I think you should work...

1 - you'll earn money, save up, and god, that's nice to have... 2 - you'll make connections (future founders, employees, etc.) 3 - you'll develop relevant skills 4 - you'll be exposed to real problems

career choices I recommend:

• product manager in a recently-raised Series A or B company, ideally in your space of interest
  • pros: very relevant skills
  • catch: you get used to having $ and resources
• something near the role you want to sell to in the future
  • identify problems
  • understand the problem, market, customer

what I don't recommend:

• working in VC
  • maybe briefly, primarily to get perspective of "startup landscape" and what it takes to get funded (but, you can get this in other ways)
• working as a dev / sales / etc. in a startup
  • don't really learn/experience the issues a founder faces