startup life: how to find an interesting startup to work for in 15 minutes. by dhfromkorea

How to find a startup

you can work for

in 15 minutes.

This guide is for those...

- who didn’t find suitable positions at Startup Life website (unfortunately)

- who is passionate about working at startups in SiliconValley and NewYork.

And the purpose is: To help you find startup job positions which fit you best within 15 minutes. It means you will get to the stage where Startup Life team can do things that will increase your chances to get the spots.

Remember! If you want to work in Silicon Valley and New York for this summer, You need to move REALLY fast and be self-initiative. Most open positions are being filled as we write this.

Angellist is a very good starting point for research about startups.

Click‘more’ and go to‘location’

Go to ‘Silicon Valley’ or ‘New York’

First clear your mind. Pick any company that looks interesting.

This time I’ll pick ‘Getaround’ as an example.

It’s important that you understand You should not judge startups by their product or for other

reasons at this point.

Just choose any. Get on with it. ���You can always do it later, or never.

This is an Angellist profile page of Getaround. Don’t look at what’s

there for now. Because we should check out their website first.

On the website, find the career or job page. It is usually at the top or

the bottom. To goal is to check if it has relevant openings for you.

Check out the current openings. See if there’s any position where you might have a fit. Focus on required skill sets. Ignore the rest just for now. (e.g. extra perks)

If there is a position you think you can apply for, then go back to Angellist. And focus on two things.

1) People (Founders & key employees)

2) Traction (company growth,revenue,active users ...)

Maybe also product or reputation... but don’t get obssessed.

People matter the most. Leaf through profiles of founders

and employees. All are on Angellist, mostly.

Remember: Startup Life is all about learning.

The quality of learning is defined by people who you work with.

You might have preference over a certain product or an idea.

But you don’t learn from the product, but from the people.

Now we turn to Linkedin.You can use it to find information about people. Go

to search box and set the search criterion to ‘People’.

Type the company name that you have found on Angellist.

Now see the sidebar on the left and tick the box next to the company name. In this case, Getaround.

Viola! Now you have the list of people who are related to Getaround. Find the person that you think you will work with. For example, if you are a marketing person, you can find someone who has a marketing-related title.

And then,

1) Check the person’s profile on Linkedin 2) Read his or her twitter feeds and blog.

Do this for 2-3 core people in relevant teams and see if what

you see about them makes you want to work with them.

Now, Round 2.

Know what they do really fast

go to Angellist again.

This time you will find startups in‘Markets’ section.

Again,anything that comes to your mind the first time. I have picked Couple.

If you want to learn fast what they do and see how they are performing, click on ‘Press’ tab on their profile page.

Pick any article from the list and read the first paragraph. It usually summarizes what a startup does in layman’s terms. Plus you will learn about their performance in the middle of the article.

Also you need to check whether they are hiring. Go to their website.

This is Couple’s career page. Good to know that they are hiring. Once you find an appropriate opening, apply for the position.

We encourage you to apply for the position yourself first.

Also don’t forget to send an email to the person you have found

on Linkedin. To know his email, read this.

drop an email to dh(at)startupsauna.com

with the following information.

1) Company name (max 2). 2) A link to the position you apply for. 3) Why you are attracted to the position. 4) How you can make unique contributions to the company.

If you don’t hear from them a week after you sent in the application.

Lastly, you might want to use Crunchbase

and Startuphire to find startups you want.

This is Crunchbase.You can overview company info. This site is a better source for more than 2-year-old startups of more than 50 employees.

You can also find current openings on StartupHire.com.

Remember startups in Silicon Valley and New York are like NFL of startups.

So you need to go the extra mile to work there. That requires your honest efforts.

Here’s the recap.

1)  Find an interesting startup with a position.

2) Contact a person in the startup for the position. 3) If you don’t hear from them, let us know via email. 4) If you get a positive feedback from them, also let us know. We can help further.

Thanks, we hope to hear from you soon!

Follow @startuplife_in    

For questions, tweet to @dhfromkorea