The start-up scene in London at the moment is booming.
Boris Johnson recently said there’s “nowhere to rival London for start-ups
looking to thrive and grow", and it certainly seems the ‘Silicon
Roundabout’ as well as the numerous incubators and accelerators are doing a
good job of nurturing London’s new digital businesses.
There’s a large and buzzing community around start-ups, and often these
are the kind of people who don’t need a recruiter’s help, as they already have
plenty of contacts. Normally, I’ll only be brought in at about the second round
of funding, when a lot of hiring needs to be done in a short time frame, and
the founders have worked through most of their existing contacts, or when the founder is not technical.
If you spend a lot of time at events, and you network with the right
people, then you probably know a lot about the start-up scene, and you know
people who can fix you up with a great job at one.
If you don’t, though, then it can seem like a daunting move to make from
the more corporate, hierarchical 9-5, to the world of the start-up.
What do start-ups look for?
Obviously every company is
different but, if I were to sum it up in one word, I’d say ‘passion’.
If you were starting a company
from scratch, spending (initially), 60+ hours a week with a handful of other
people, uncertain if it will pay off, then you need to be confident about
those other people. You need to know that they, like you, hunger for your idea
to work and be successful. You need to know that they are 100% behind your
idea. This doesn’t really change even when the company reaches 50+, sometimes
even 100+ employees, especially when this growth can happen within a short number of
years in a fast-growth start-up.
When I screen candidates for
culture fit in start-up tech roles, passion is one of the key indicators for
me. This is everything from what a candidate does in their spare time, to the
way they talk about their work, and if their eyes light up.
Does a corporate background
count against you?
No, not necessarily, but I would
definitely look at what the candidate has been doing outside of work – side projects,
meet-ups etc. By the way, by ‘corporate’ I don’t just mean a large company – I mean
the traits that unfortunately tend to come along with being a larger company – technically
set in its ways, very hierarchical, slow moving.
I think it’s a much more
natural move to transition from an SME, because the start-up world is dynamic,
evolving constantly, and usually very flat structurally, but it depends
entirely on the individual, and it’s never too late to make the change.
I’d say the key thing here is to
make sure you’re coding in your spare time. Swot up and make sure you know all
the latest trends in your chosen technology. The tech space moves fast and if
your company isn’t sympathetic to that then you need to be.
Is joining a start-up risky and
time consuming?
It can be, but you
just have to be smart about it. I think it’s quite easy to tell if a start-up
has legs or not. Look at where the money is coming from; if they have a
concrete business plan beyond big dreams; if they have done their market
research and have a track record in the space; who the other people working
there are and what their backgrounds are.
I think when you
consider what recently happened to Tesco, it’s clear that any company can fail,
big or small. It’s only as big a risk as your research is careless.
If you think you'd like to work for an awesome London start-up message me :)
