Starting Up at a Start-up

Last week, on May 31st, I began anew at a start-up. Prior to taking the position, I performed due-diligence on the company and myself. What I anticipated was accurate. It is 3am. I woke up at 12:30am thinking about business.

When thinking about my new role prior to accepting, a new weight of business hit me: I will be responsible to the livelihood of others. In business school, I'd heard entrepreneurs discuss the responsibilities of making payroll. Turn it over in my head, I never felt the empathy associated with that level of responsibility. When I had the thought, I felt the responsibility of it.

In my prior position, I was 1 of 225 employees. Essentially, I was 0.4% of corporate output. If I was missing, 99.6% was there to fill the gap. My position was a cost defensive position: I protected against rising costs of business processes. I was neither responsible for revenue, nor strategy. However, what I was responsible for, I nailed.

Now, I am 1 of 9 employees. 10% of total business output. In some roles, I'm as high as 100% of corporate output. My actions are directly responsible for revenues today, next month, and the next month. All decisions are a precedent for the company.

Being early Saturday morning of my first week, this is not the first time I've woke early: it's the 5th. As proposed by legions of thinkers, when I sleep, my brain goes into "fix" mode. My brain is working to get things in order as it sees it. Of course, the best rest is to wake and actually get those in order.

And with that, I'm off to work.