Lately, I've been asked what it's like to work at a tech startup.
I work at Akorda, a "legal-tech" startup selling a software-as-a-service product to corporate lawyers. We help lawyers analyze risk and streamline the negotiation of their sell-side contracts.
Working at a small company—we're a team of 6 programmers—trying to disrupt an entire market is both fun and difficult.
There are many unknowns. We need to move fast. User feedback causes constant plans and priority changes. And FOMO is real!
With so many opportunities in tech, it is easy to have second thoughts.
"What if it doesn’t work? Wouldn’t it be easier/better at a big company?"
On the flip side, at times it's fun because I’m helping build something entirely new from scratch. I can satisfy my intellectual curiosity every day.
From the cloud infrastructure—Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, etc.—to the business logic, I get to touch all the tech stack.
And often feel like I’m working in a research lab.
There’s plenty of trial and error and a constant loop of research, fast design, quick implementation, user testing, and feedback.
So what's like working at a startup?
With all the ups and downs, constant changes, and hard tasks, it can really feel “like building a plane while flying it” and having fun while at it!