The two types of startups: Lifestyle and growth
There are two types of startups essentially: Lifestyle and growth. Deciding which one you want to join or start is important before even going into it. Some people start companies because they want it to support them and bring in a salary for them, basically supporting their lifestyle. That’s what is referred to as a Lifestyle startup. On the other hand, there is the startup that is built to grow big and set up for big exits, that’s the growth startup. Facebook, Pandora, Groupon are all examples of growth startups.
The main noticeable differences between the two is the amount of funding brought in. Typically, a lifestyle startup rarely takes outside investment. It is often bootstrapped and caters to the needs of the founder. There is no board, no big investors making decisions for the company and often times they are local. A growth startup on the other rounds takes in rounds and rounds of funding, they are always looking to scale up and take over their niche in every country in the world, they have several outside investors sitting on their board and making important company decisions.
Going into a startup, you must first decide what type of employee you see yourself as, or what type of founder you want to be. Do you just want to build a company that supports you and your family? or you are more keen on the big exits? When you start applying for startup jobs, these are questions to ask the founders or whoever is interviewing you.
