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Stripe CEO Patrick Collison highlights a key reason why talented people join startups despite the risks: the unique chance to measure their impact. “Part of the reason startups resonate with people is because the outcome is not guaranteed. If it were guaranteed, it would be boring… Whether or not you’re the best person in the world at what you do, you’re probably not going to alter Google’s trajectory. But if you really want to benchmark yourself and see how much of a contribution and impact you can make—which is a really compelling prospect for a lot of the best people—a startup is a much better place to test that.”
Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann echoes this realism, stressing honesty about the risks involved: “No smart person that you’re hiring is under the illusion that you have a crystal ball into the future and that joining is a guaranteed thing. In fact, if you’re telling them that and they select in, you shouldn’t hire them because they didn’t pass a basic intelligence test.” He advises founders to clearly share both the exciting potential and the challenges ahead, explaining why each role is critical. “What I would discourage doing is whitewashing all of that. If people are joining your company because they want all of the certainty and safety of working at Google but also the perks of working at a small startup with lots of responsibility and transparency, that’s a really negative sign.”
In the early days of PayPal, cofounders Peter Thiel and Max Levchin set a precedent by openly sharing the risks with new hires: “Visa and MasterCard want to kill us. We also might be doing something that’s illegal. But if we succeed, we’ll redefine payments.”
The takeaway? Don’t gloss over risks. Instead, be transparent about the challenges and inspire candidates by showing how your startup could change the world—and how their role will be instrumental in that journey.
