S1 #9 Andrew Munn
Engineering Culture at Big Companies and Early Stage Startups: Insights from a Conversation with Andrew Munn
When I started the 1st10 Podcast with Alexis Munger, my intention was to get an understanding of the early startup ecosystem from all sides of the equation - founders, investors, and even early engineers! Some of our earlier guests - such as Prakash Janakiraman - have even held all 3 roles at different points of their career.
So, when I got the opportunity to speak with Andrew Munn, a Senior Engineering Manager at Lindy.ai, I was super excited. Andrew's career trajectory is fascinating! He started his career interning for 4 of the big 5 - Microsoft, Facebook, Google, and Amazon - while he was still a student at the University of Waterloo! His software engineering career took him to some illustrious places such as Facebook, Uber, Trove, and Nextdoor, before joining Lindy.ai.
So, I decided to invite Andrew on the 1st10 Podcast to discuss the nuances of engineering culture at big companies and early startups. And I came away with some incredible insights into the contrasting dynamics of these two environments.
The podcast episode featuring Andrew explores a lot of these insights in great detail (accompanied by several amazing anecdotes from Andrew) but I figured I'd extract some key takeaways from our conversation and post them here!
One thing that shone through our conversation with Andrew was his enthusiasm for early stage startups. Andrew personally finds them so appealing because he believes early stage startups offer much more by way of learning opportunities than large, well-established tech giants.
For instance, working at an early stage startup gives you the opportunity to take on a broader set of responsibilities. In Andrew's own words, "You don't have a PM, you don't have a data-analyst, you don't have strategy, you probably don't have a designer. If you do, they're focused on maybe only part of the product. So you have to do everything."
And this inevitably leads to the possibility that the work you do at such a startup will lead to a much greater impact. As Andrew explains about his time working at Facebook: "I got to do things that impacted hundreds of millions of users right away!"
But wait!
This doesn't mean you should quit your Big Tech job right now and start applying to startups. 'Most people probably should not join an early stage startup!' says Andrew. Because "if you're an early stage company, all bets are off. You need to thrive in chaos. The company can completely pivot tomorrow. You could be acquired. You could be fired because the company doesn't need you anymore."
It should come as no surprise to you that early stage startups are a hotbed of chaos. If you don't know what you are getting into, you better stay far FAR away from it!
But the chaotic nature of these early startup experiences is wonderfully contrasted with his experience at bigger companies and later stage startups, such as Nextdoor. In his opinion, the bigger tech companies (or even late stage startups) have two very critical positives that engineers need to consider.
1. Predictability and Stability: Big companies offer a sense of predictability and stability, providing a structured environment for career growth.
2. Opportunity for Bigger Projects: Big companies often build and deploy giant distributed systems - a skill that you are unlikely to learn at a smaller startup.
And that's why Andrew thinks that late stage startups can provide the right balance between the two. In his own words, "late stage companies are the sweet spot for impact because you're big enough to have a real product and so you're actually impacting people's lives out there. But you're not so big that you're just a tiny little cog in a big machine. You can still make big changes."
But if I were to extract just one message from our conversation with Andrew it would be to remember the importance of personal connections while evaluating pitches from any early startups. Andrew's decision to join Trove (and more recently, Lindy.ai) was heavily influenced by his personal connections with the founders and team members. He made it very clear that he would never join an early stage company where he didn't know anyone!
All in all, it was fascinating to note the differences between the engineering culture at big companies and early startups. One offers predictability, the other offers chaos. One offers stability, the other rapid learning. One gives you a greater scope for impact, the other gives you a well-defined structure you can rely on.
Both environments clearly have their unique appeal, and the choice between the two ultimately hinges on YOUR individual preferences and career aspirations!
If you have any insights or perspectives that are very different from Andrew's, I want to hear from you! Drop either of us - me or Alexis - a quick DM on LinkedIn - we LOVE talking to (and about) early stage startups!
About Us:
1st10 was founded on the simple philosophy that there is nothing more important to the success of your startup than the first ten engineers you hire. Because the first ten will impact the next ten and any wrong misstep can be the difference between success and failure. 1st10 works with visionary founders and exceptional engineers to build world class engineering teams.
1st10 was founded by Boris Epstein, original founder of Binc, the firm best known for pioneering embedded recruiting in Silicon Valley. Binc built early teams for Pinterest, Ripple, Stripe, Square, Airbnb, Reddit, Tesla and many more. Binc was acquired by Robinhood in 2021.