An Engineer’s Guide to Silicon Valley Startups
An Engineer’s Guide to Silicon Valley Startups
I’ve worked at 5 different startups in my career in Silicon Valley. While every company is unique, there are many similarities between Silicon Valley startups. As workplaces go, Silicon Valley startups embody the American dream: they’re exciting, fun, and provide employees with great flexibility and freedom. Join the right startup, and you can change the world! This book covers topics of interest to anyone who wants to work at startups:
How do you get a job at a startup?
How do you choose which startups to talk to?
How do you approach interviewing at a startup?
How would you negotiate compensation?
Once at a startup, what should you do to maximize gains from stock options?
Why is it advantageous to exerci
List Price: $ 9.99
Price: $ 9.99
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Great advice from an author who has been there,
Piaw Na takes us inside the world of Silicon Valley startups, and gives solid, practical advice for locating and taking advantage of the opportunities in Silicon Valley. The book is based on his 17 years of experience at pre-IPO corporations in Silicon Valley. The information on negotiating stock options is worth the price of the book alone. Helpful information on venture capital, and what they are looking for when they invest. Reading this book could mean the difference between choosing a company that succeeds, and one that doesn’t (hint: some tool choices are a dead giveaway to poor engineering decisions, which is so true). Also gives a realistic view into the chances of hitting it big with stock options. Engineers interested in working in Silicon Valley, whether at a startup or not, should definitely read this book.
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|Detailed Advice for EVERYONE on the “Practical” Side of Start-Ups,
This is a great book for anyone looking for get involved with start-ups, even if they’re not in silicon valley, and even in non-coding roles. While it’s not a long term job guide (and it’s not intended to be), it is surprisingly comprehensive.
A good chunk of the book is focused on the financial / practical implication of start-ups (rather than, say, interview tips and such), which makes it a great read for even experienced people. Less experienced people will probably need some additional help finding a great position, but they’ll still get a lot of value out of this book. After all, the financial side is some of the hardest for engineers (and anyone) to navigate.
Some of the topics covered:
EVALUATING STARTUPS
Piaw discusses a bunch of different “warning signs” for evaluating a start-up from the perspective of an engineer.
LANDING A JOB
Piaw offers good, concrete advice about maintaining and expanding your network, which is critical to finding a start-up that’s a good fit.
HOW VC FUNDS WORK
More experienced people will probably basically know this information, but if you’re someone who doesn’t understand the ins and outs of VCs, you should read this.
EVALUATING YOUR CONTRACT
Piaw covers the major details in employee contracts, including non-competes and other tricky clauses.
TAX / STOCK IMPLICATIONS
I was really impressed by the level of depth here, and this is why I’d recommend this book to even more experienced people. It provides a great overview of different types of stock and then goes a good amount of detail about planning for different circumstance (evaluating stock packages, limiting your tax bill, etc).
If you’re interested in understanding the “nitty gritty” details of joining a start-up, and learning about the more qualitative (aka “job guide”) aspects as well, this will be a great book for you.
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