London’s startup scene is booming with record levels of investment and up to 80 new companies born each hour. In 2016 UK digital tech investment reached £6.8bn and in the last five years London has attracted more investment than Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam combined. With such a vibrant startup economy we’re seeing more startup hires than ever which has lead to increased awareness of ‘startup culture’.
What is startup culture?
Simply put, startup culture is a lack of established processes combined with a flexible working model that allows startups to remain agile. The agility and speed of startups allow them to compete with large corporate businesses until they become more established – our executive search partner Talentarc recently hosted a panel discussion that explored how the leadership models of startups and corporates compared – view the highlights here.
As a result of this, startups are famously more relaxed when compared with rigid corporate structures. The unique office culture of each startup with form based on a number of factors, including the personality of the founders and early hires, the nature of their work and how they approach client relationships.
What should you expect from startup culture?
A key point is that a relaxed work environment does not mean a relaxed workload. It takes a lot of work to get a startup off the ground and support staff will often be late to end game hires?, so everyone will be expected to pitch in. You can expect to interact with areas of the business outside your exact job role. The upside of this is that you’ll be working closely with everyone which results in invaluable experience as well as a much happier work environment. Another result of this is that finding the correct cultural fit is much more important to startups – hiring someone that doesn’t work well with the rest of the team could quite literally sink the business in the early stages.
If you join a startup you’ll be working with people that absolutely believe in their product or about revolutionising their marketplace, so examples of how you’re an innovative, dynamic individual will help you through an interview. Remember that it’s not always going to be smooth sailing and often in the early days of a business you’ll need to operate with autonomy and think on your feet. This may sound stressful, but the payoff is a genuine sense of being involved in something new and exciting – you’ll see the results of your actions in rewarding ways that can get lost in larger offices. People that join startups do so because they have genuine belief and want to be part of an amazing journey that exists outside a traditional office structure.
Talentedge partners with some of London’s most innovative startups – if you’re interested in joining this vibrant scene contact our consultants for a confidential discussion here.
