- Founders?
- Venture Capitalists?
- Startup Employees?
- Internet commenters from all over the world?
- All of the Above?I'm sure it's possible that there are people who have never heard any of the statistics about how many startups fail, who have never worked at a startup, don't know anyone who has, never talked about a coworker who left to work at a startup, and who go through the recruiting process without anyone mentioning it.
It's understood by everyone else, though, so I think that qualifies as "well understood" generally.
That doesn't mean it isn't bad to lay people off in a startup; it's horrible. And it means the founders did something wrong (hired too many people, didn't have a good business model, etc).
But it should be understood that the entire company can disappear in 6 months if its a new startup.
I agree.
> I joined a Big-whatever company because of the stability. If I was going to join a small startup, I'd be aware of the instability.
I concur with your reasoning.
> That doesn't mean it isn't bad to lay people off in a startup; it's horrible. And it means the founders did something wrong (hired too many people, didn't have a good business model, etc).
100%
> But it should be understood that the entire company can disappear in 6 months if its a new startup.
That's fair.
But just because something should be understood, doesn't mean it necessarily is understood by all parties. Assuming "ought implies is" is how a lot of dangerous mistakes happen.
For a B2C company, you can usually find out about the number of customers, growth rate, etc. if I am coming in on a senior level, I ask those questions.
Well not really, in the current technological climate, I really don’t worry about job stability. Jobs are a dime a dozen for developers and I get benefits through my wife.