Tiger Buford, an orthopedic recruiter, walks through eight questions to test if you're cut out for a startup. Can you handle risk, constant change, and long hours without clear structure? If you're saying yes to most of them, especially the first six, you might be ready.
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Brought to you by Tiger Buford. Hello, orthopedic professionals. Welcome to Inside Orthopedics. My name is Tiger. I'm an orthopedic industry insider and retained recruiter for early-stage orthopedic companies. Thanks again. This is episode number 15 titled, "Are you ready to work in an orthopedic startup company?" This one is for those people that think they have the right stuff to work in a startup. So let's jump right in. I've had the fortune of working inside 3 startups and recruiting for startups. It takes a special mindset actually to work in a startup. Startups aren't for everyone. But if you're the right person, a startup can be very, very rewarding. Today I place talented people into early-stage ortho companies, and many of these are raw and in their formative stages. Most individuals that I interview for startup positions really have no idea if they are suited for startup or not. It's almost like asking them if they would like to go to Mars. And how would they know? They have never worked in a startup before. So I've created a series of questions to figure this out. It's kind of a litmus test for startup readiness. To find out if a startup is for you, answer these 8 simple questions to determine if you have the right stuff to work in a startup environment. Just be truthful with a yes or no to each question. Alright, here we go. Question number 1, the risk question: Are you willing to work hard knowing that you may need to find another job? Startups are risky. You have to go in knowing that most startups fail for a myriad of reasons. They miss the market need, they run out of cash, They have the wrong management team. They got outcompeted. They have pricing cost issues, product issues, an ill-conceived business model. The product is mistimed. A pivot has gone bad. Failure to pivot. Faulty business assumptions such as regulatory pathway. Poor execution during commercialization. And many other reasons. In other words, there's a lot that could go wrong. If you need a steady paycheck and are basically a risk-averse person, then it is a no, and you can stop right here and go to the next podcast. So, yes or no, are you willing to work hard knowing you may need to find another job? Question 2: The Change Question. Are you comfortable with change? And I mean really comfortable. Startups are fluid, they lack formal structure, and are full of entrepreneurial spirit. If you're okay with ambiguity, quick changes in direction that may include changes to your title, your projects, the company strategy, your physical working location, organizational structure, or just the fundamental way of doing things, then you may have to think twice. Yes or no on the change question. Question number 3, the work question. Do you enjoy completing extremely hard work in short timeframes? You'll have to work hard at things you're not used to doing and you don't know how to do. And often you will work alone as you carry a project from idea all the way through execution. All the while, you may not have the tools that you are used to if you're coming from a big company. Some love the hard work and others run away from it. Many startups push the work-life balance and the me time begins to blur. Working hours can become a fluid concept. One of the reasons startups shower their employees with free food, beer, services is because they don't want you to go home at the end of the day. At Lips, we had endless supply of candies and goodies. We felt guilty leaving the office at 7:00, even if others were still going. So that's the work question, yes or no. Question number 4, the speed question. Do you value speed over perfection? In a startup culture, perfection and speed are in constant balance and compromise, but speed usually wins the day. You can turn in a project before you think it's perfect in order to meet a deadline. Can you do that? Can you work with a sense of urgency knowing that almost every task is the most important and most pressing for intimate for an immediate solution? Yes or no on the speed question. Question number 5, the structure question. Can you work without structure? The earlier the stage in a startup, the less structure there is. Some startups don't have products yet, sales, marketing, or manufacturing. And they don't have much structure. Some don't have procedures for much of anything. They don't have org charts, job descriptions. They don't, don't have expense reports or travel agents even. So people who need a lot of structure and process to feel comfortable in a work environment may have trouble surviving in a startup. So yes or no on the structure question. Question number 6: The ownership question. We all make mistakes. Do you own your mistakes? In a startup, everybody knows the quality of everybody else's work. There's no hiding. Employees who thrive in startups openly share their mistakes and offer ideas for doing better next time. Do you own it or do you hide it? So yes or no on the ownership question. Question number 7, the experimentation question. Do you enjoy experimenting to find better ways of doing things? At Ellipse, we experimented every week. I called it rapid iterations. It was part of the DNA of the culture. Many startups are built on experimentation. Do you have the experimental mindset? So yes or no on the experimentation question. And finally, Question 8, the trust question. Do you have the ability to trust the guy or gal next to you? Can you trust him to do his part? You can't be overly controlling. This is part of the ambiguity culture. You have to be comfortable with and able to trust your startup buddies. As you navigate through the ambiguity, there will come a time where you have to pull together as a team to make a decision, usually very quickly. You need confidence that you and your team can figure out the next move in the middle of a battle live and be comfortable with the outcome. So that's the last question, the trust question. Yes or no? All right. If you made it this far, here's the answer to your question: are you ready for a startup? If you made it through questions 1 through 6 with all yeses, congratulations, you belong in a startup. You can contact me. Question number 6, as a reminder, was the ownership question. If you hit no before question 6, then the startup is probably not for you. So that's it. That's all, that's all 8. Hope you enjoyed the startup test. Don't forget to subscribe, and you can always follow me at TigerBuford.com. Be safe out there.
