In 2021 while at London Business School, I participated in INSEAD’s Product Games, a hackathon for product managers. They provided our team a mentor who worked at Paypal at the time but had extensive experience working in startups. The following are my takeaways from a conversation with him that validated my reasons for not going to a startup amidst the increased jadedness against corporate life in the last decade.
not good for
- accumulating wealth
- private options
- founder/co-founder take home the pie, rest take nothing
- niche
- being a PM at a startup means you also play many other roles so you don’t get to focus on one area (e.g., PM can also mean account sales as opposed to becoming specific like “growth marketing PM”)
good for
- pivot industry or role
- people manager