All the work developers and designers are doing in a product is usually because of a business-related reason. There are of course those rare, artsyinstallations where people code and design artwork. But if you want to use your skills to get paid, you need to understand how what you do impacts the business side of things. In this chapter I'll walk you through the basics of startups - how they operate, what stages they often have, and how knowing all this can bene"t you as a developer.

LET'S DIVE IN!

Joining a startup can be the wild ride of your life, or a difficult life lesson. Either way - you win! Chances are, that joining a new company early on will lead you to be a part of the company, rather than just an employee.

That's great if the company reaches unicorn status - it means it's worth a Billion dollars. But before you start picking yacht colors using the knowledge from the previous chapters, hear me out.

When working at a startup it's especially important for you to be versatile. Sure - doing your job the best way imaginable is the most essential, but knowing how what you do ties to everything else can make the entire experience a lot better.

The reasons are simple. For one, communication with the rest of the team will be a lot be$er when you know their MVP's from ROI's and VC's. But developers are primarily problem solvers, so knowing more about how a startup works and how it makes money can actually lead to you contributing a lot more than just code.

BASIC TERMS

Before finding creative ways to solve problems you need to know what they can be. Let's start with the vocabulary. These are the most common "startup" words you may hear.

MVP

Minimum Viable Product - It's the alpha version of the product that has the core functionalities, so you can test how users react to it. It's usually a way to test if the product even makes sense - or in other words: if people are going to buy it.

Bootstrapped

Contrary to some beliefs, this doesn't necessarily mean they used Bootstrap for the Frontend. It means that the product was done by the founders, without any external cash and they worked super hard on it. People wear it as a badge of honor if they manage to make it big.

VC Founded

VC stands for Venture Capital. It's basically a group of rich people who invest in small companies for a % share of them (called equity). Those VC's know that 9 out of 10 startups fail, but they hope on at least 1 of 10 being a huge hit. Being founded is a dream of many startups in the US, but it leads to less control over your own company and product. Those VC's will be your new bosses if your company takes them in.

ROI

Return on Investment - This is both a tactic for, and a time when a company is starting to actually make money (revenue). Many startups surf the wave of VC money and don't think about selling anything to actual customers, but avoid that route as it ends with a very sudden cliff while you're going really fast.

Acqui-hired

This means one company is buying another company. But their reason is to just get the people from that second company, so they likely start with handing out new tshirts and then killing the product they just purchased.

Incubator

It's a place that takes some % of the company in exchange for funding and/or teaching you a thing or two. This is called mentoring, but in many cases it's just sharing case-studies.

Burn Rate

If you get funded and cash starts flowing in, this is the rate at which you'll run out of it at your current monthly costs. So just divide the amount you got by how much you spend each month, and you will "nd out how many months will the company lasts. That is of course until it starts making money on its own, or gets another round of funding.

Exit strategy

It's your plan to monetize on the time and e#ort you put into the company. You may sell your shares, get acqui-hired or just go live off-grid in a van somewhere. It's up to you.

Angel Investor

This is a rich person that decides to give you money to pursue your dreams. They also take a share of the company but are usually private individuals, not VC companies. They also o$en support companies very early on their ways.

Going Public

It means listing your company on an exchange, so individual (small) investors can buy them. Companies use it to try and get even richer, but it can back"re sometimes with very high expectations that are impossible to meet.

Pivot

A pivot is when a company doing one thing, decides they'll be doing another thing from now on. It can come from one feature of your app being used a lot more than the rest and becoming an app of its own. Pivots should be informed and backed by evidence, as doing them randomly can hurt the business rather than save it. And in many cases a pivot is being considered when the company is not doing that well. But in reality, when we look at the true unicorn companies, most of them worked on their initial vision of success. Only a small number of those "big ones" has been a result of a pivot.

NDA

Non-disclosure agreement. It's a form of agreement that companies and individuals sign making sure nobody is going to leak any secrets. It's also something you'll likely be facing in nearly any company that is going to hire you. It means you have to keep everything that's happening in the company to yourself.

Disrupt

It's what many startup founders crave. It means you came up with a product so innovative, it's changing (disrupting) the entire industry. Also: a TechCrunch startup conference name. These are the most important terms to familiarize yourself with at the start. But don't worry - there will be more. It's important that you know the basic vocabulary, so no part of the startup journey is ever intimidating.

Joining a startup early means you should contribute more than just code to it.

WHAT CAN YOU DO

Let's start with the basics. If you're in a startup and you own shares of the company, it should motivate you to do your best work. Don't expect the rest of the team to "make you rich in the background". I hope it's clear by now that you need to do your best work. And then some.

As a frontend developer, you're responsible for one of the most important things in a product. It's all the stuff your users and customers see and interact with.

You can only make a first impression once, so make sure it's the best possible one. That means pixel-perfect precision, alignment and consistency of the UI. That super-high quality of execution is something your users will subconsciously feel and appreciate.

The buttons above are a good example. If the label on the button is not properly centered and the button is too small to comfortably click, it will create friction. The more friction the product has, the more it has to make up in value. And at some point there's no additional value it can add and your users begin to drop off

Think about all the little details from the previous chapters. Make sure the grid is solid and every object is aligned to it perfectly. Use the right fonts, sizes and weights. Have a precise, consistent color palette. Avoid having random extra colors or gradients.

Make your frontends look perfect!

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