Waseem Daher explains why he chose startups: working with smart people who challenge him, building products customers love, and creating net positive societal impact. He argues startups uniquely deliver all three better than anywhere else.
What actually makes me happy in my work life? And it was a combination of, you know, I want to work with smart, talented people who challenge me to do good work every day. I want to work on a thing that customers love where, like, you show it to them and they're like, wow, this, like, really solves a problem I have. And I wanted to work on something— and this third one kind of sounds like a low bar, but it's surprisingly not— I wanted to work on something that was not obviously societally net negative. Like, I want to make something you want, and I should believe that in consuming it or buying it that I'm actually helping you and not harming you. And if you take a look at those 3 requirements, the startup is actually probably one of the best vehicles for achieving them, which is it's probably the most efficient method for getting together a smart— a group of smart, talented people who want to work hard on a particular topic. And it has the advantage of really giving you a feeling of agency and impact.
