Startups and my WHY

I was talking to a friend in the neighborhood, kuya EJ. I told him how I joined a startup last week.

He asked me about the business model. Then he asked me:

How will that startup make the world better?

So I went on to ramble what I remembered from listening to the podcasts that the founders were on.

Kuya EJ then articulated to me really clearly, how the startup proposed to answer that question. (Thank u bro hahaha)

What was the basic answer to the question?

May mga pangarap ang mga ordinaryong Pilipino. Para abutin ang pangarap nila, kailangan nila ng capital. Pero mahirap nga magkaroon ng capital, pag wala silang credit history. Kaya solusyon niyo is bridging that gap to provide credit history.

He also told me to take caution. From his experience with starting a company, he found that it’s important to note: what is your desire?

I told him: I wanted to learn skills from this company and start my own company later on.

To which he said:

Not trying to burst your bubble, but be careful lang. Think about it like this. Gusto mo mag learn kung paano magrun ng business. Eh sila mismo natututo din eh. Diba first time nila? Mahirap yun. Paano mo matutunan yung paano maging successful if there’s a chance that this won’t? My advice brother: either start up a company yourself or attach yourself to a company with success already. Bale, don’t go in with both feet in the water.

Wise words.

Which kind of clarified my goals on joining this startup to myself.

10 reasons why I took my first job.

1. It’s fully WFH.
2. It’s an early stage company, and Marc Andressen & Elad Gil suggested to jump on these ships.
3. I was hoping to try other departments and find and decide on a specialty for my career path. Either BD or HR, in that order.
4. I got the job because I was getting bored and mentally unstable from not having anything or any work to do at home (note that I am not allowed by my mother as a rule of this household to go to places outside the village or to talk to people based on this current COVID-19 Pandemic situation).
5. Aligned with that household rule, I was actually supposed to wait on an offer from an already successful PR company. But since the startup offer came first, I took it, knowing that these can be pretty rare, and that feeling that I worked pretty hard to get the startup offer.
6. Money.
7. It kind of aligned with my “WHY", in which my friend helped me uncover a core value I have: inclusivity.
8. It’s October 2021 and around 90% of my friends are employed.
9. I felt left out that most of my friends already found employment.
10. I liked the managers attitudes and personalities during my interviews.