Startup Employee Turned Founder: Why this Startup Ecosystem is Great.
By Jack Sutherland, Founder
Being an employee at a Startup takes Courage.
It is no secret that becoming an employee at a startup is not the easiest career choice to make. If you hold any kind of degree besides Entrepreneurship, the startup space is the last place you are told/expected to start your career. But if you somehow know someone or got a connection to a startup and you start your career journey with a newly launched venture than you are halfway to making the right choice.
The next step is adapting to the lifestyle it entails and fully immersing yourself in the environment around you. The work/life balance isn't what you learn about in your management classes. The startup work/life balance usually is more along the lines of work is life. And I would venture to guess that the majority of people in this space are 100% okay with that realization. Which is exactly why people stay.
There is something to be said about the feeling of being part of a small team, 2-3 months old and you are already solving real problems for real people. I don't think you would be nearly done with training in the same time period at corporation A-Z. You will be doing real work day one and you will share in the successes and failures of that startup collectively. It's a great feeling.
I suppose I am choosing the wrong place to convince people to work at startups, on the basis of everyone in the BuiltInChicago community already does. But if this somehow gets out to the general public I will let the Facebook virality formula do its job. If it does do its job and you are reading this with no prior knowledge of BuiltInChicago, 1871, Startup Institute, the Starter League, or the startup environment in Chicago, then click any of the links I just provided and realize that this is real.
I have worked with 2 great startups in my short career. When I was a sophmore in College, I had the priviledge to work with two of my greatest mentors Kasey Gandham and Mike Shannon as they were in the early stages of starting up Packback. ***If you are a college student reading this post, and you feel even the slightest urge to find the nearest startup to you and start working; Go to this link and talk to these guys. I promise you that you wont regret it and will get the most out of the experience.*** The other startup that I was able to be with was this past year, Matchup. And let me be the first to tell you, if you haven't already heard, the potential of this company is extremely exciting and youneed to be talking to these guys about what they have going on. Just recently launched and they already will be tearing up their space in the near future.
That brings us to now, I am a Senior in college with my whole life ahead of me. I have had 2 other corporate insurance and finance internships and I don't think I have referred to those in my day-to-day life for long while. That is because I have too much to talk about when it comes to the experiences I have had with the 2 great companies listed above. The startup ecosystem in Chicago is rather inspiring to say the least. You can't make it through a day at 1871 without hearing a story from someone inspiring you to work twice as hard. All of the founders that I have encountered have been so well grounded to reality and so supportive that it is easy to see my next step in this wonderful crazy startup world we have immersed ourselves in.
I have seen what it is like to start businesses with success, now its time for me to get a little skin in the game. I know I will fall flat on my face from time to time but I also know I have the supportive structure of the Chicago startup ecosystem to help me back up.
My name is Jack Sutherland, I am a former employee of two great Chicago-Built companies, and a founder of a brand new one, Ideafeed, where we will enhance the way you approach problem solving. The future is near and bright and I owe it all to the people who make this city/community great.
{exerpt taken from Built In Chicago blog post (http://www.builtinchicago.org/blog/startup-employee-turned-founder-why-startup-ecosystem-great) by Jack Sutherland}
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