Get a job

If you exited your last company for airplane money and are now independently wealthy, congratulations!  You can go golfing in New Zealand, or if you want to build another company, just self-fund.  If you want outside capital, most VCs will be glad to fund you. 

Unfortunately, most founders are not in that position: 9 out of 10 startups fail. Even if you achieve a high valuation, you might end up like FanDuel’s founders: their investors got the benefit of a $465m exit; the founders got zero.   

As someone with “founder” on your resume, you have an extra challenge in getting a traditional salaried job. You’ve already shown that you really want to lead a company and not just rise up the ladder, which means some employers are less likely to hire you. One research paper found, 

“[F]ormer founders receive fewer callbacks than non-founders; however, all founders are not disadvantaged similarly. Former founders of successful ventures receive even fewer [emphasis added] callbacks than former founders of failed ventures. Through 20 interviews with technical recruiters, we highlight the mechanisms driving this founder-experience discount: concerns related to the applicant’s capability and ability to fit into and remain committed to the wage employment and the hiring firm.”

So what should you do?  Especially if your life partner and/or bank account are burnt out on the income volatility of startups? 

We think large corporates do not recognize the value of an experienced founder, and we welcome ideas on how to expand awareness of their unique value-add. Some ideas for founders on how to get a traditional job (with stability and insurance!):

  • Review the Founders Next Move job board, where we track employers specifically seeking to hire experienced tech founders.
  • Join a community of people seeking their next role. For example, Teal and Propel provide career services, community, and tools to help professionals in their careers.
  • Join a startup. We suggest start by reviewing the portfolios of active VCs in your space for portfolio companies that are hiring and value your entrepreneurial experience.  A few people offer curated lists of companies which are particularly good places to build your career, e.g., the Wealthfront Career-Launching Companies List
  • Go to startup Demo Days, a convenient opportunity to learn about firms in your space that are actively hiring. See our events calendar.
  • Go to AngelListCrunchbase, and other similar databases and look for teams working on issues similar to your area of expertise.  If you love the team and traction, you can pitch them to join them as an advisor or cofounder. The statistics are clear that most startups fail. If the person’s startup also fails, then the founders will be in the same boat as you and you’ll be able to share notes on logical next moves. See Where are the deals? How VCs source winning companies.
  • Hire a talent agent for business people, e.g., FreeAgency.com. These are the equivalent of talent agents for entertainers. You contract to pay them a percentage of your first-year compensation, at no fixed cost to you. They help you find the employer who will pay you the most.  
  • Hire a negotiating agent.  Negotiation of compensation only gets more complex as your career path becomes more unusual.  Certain employment attorneys specialize in this niche. See How to negotiate and evaluate your job offer.
  • Consider working in politics or advising NGOs. Major policy / political organizations of all stripes are looking to become more digitally savvy. InclusiveAmerica is a database of underrepresented people interested in serving in politically appointed positions. If your political philosophy tilts left, All Hands is a resume bank focused on tech talent that wants to work for progressive/liberal goals. Tech for Campaigns matches volunteers from the tech world — engineers, data scientists, product managers, marketing pros — with Democratic campaigns in need of a winning digital strategy. If your political philosophy tilts right, see ConservativeJobs.com
  • Post your bio to some of the mailing lists that surface high-quality people in transition, e.g., NextPlay, NextNYC, ffVC G/A/N.
  • Contact recruiters. There’s no harm in getting your resume into the hands of recruiters, although we recommend don’t spend much time on this. Recruiters focus on filling jobs, not on marketing candidates. That said, certain firms specialize in early-stage CEO roles, e.g., PeopleConnect.

Further reading: