How much patience should you have with employees in an early stage startup?
It takes a certain type of person to thrive in the mud and muck that is a startup. They have to remain unfazed by undefined roles. They have to accept there is little to no work/life balance. They have to realize that the earn is in the outcome, not in the salary. They must realize that there is no place to hide and it could all end tomorrow (or later today).
Who would do that? Who would give up salary, stability, freedom for a shot at something big?
Very few people.
Startups pose a real challenge when it comes to human rights and, for some reason, those of us that do it accept this willingly. But…it isn’t for everyone.
Great founders move people out that don’t fit and they do it quickly. There is very little room in the early stages of a company to carry people or help them progress to an acceptable level of production. There simply isn’t the time. If someone is not making an outsized contribution there can’t be a seat for them at this stage. Period.
I’ve been on both sides of this conversation — hired at a startup that worked, let people go at a startup that weren’t working out and have been the one let go at a startup because there wasn’t a fit.
The pace won’t relent and if there are people that can’t pull the company ahead, they have no place in it at this stage.