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BTQ

Account Manager

Politicker
Catalyst
Valued Contributor
+7

Startup or Legacy: Which did you find better for YOUR career?

Startups can be great but can go to 0 and are quite volatile. Risky but can be worth the gamble if properly vetted.

Legacy companies are great too but can be subject to nepotism and can move slower when it comes to career growth.

personally I couldn't break into any legacy companies so I went to a startup.

curious on the WR savages wisdom who have worked at both and to hear their take.
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saaskicker
Celebrated Contributor
4
Enterprise AE
I've worked at both, happy to answer any more pointed questions.

Start Ups:
-move fast, career can progress at hyper speed
-less tools in place
-choose your own adventure
-younger scene (typically) great place to build a solid network as people leave your start up for big companies of FAANG etc

Legacy:
-earnings are capped by your territory
-not much say in how things are run, take a playbook and run it
-good WLB
-cushy
BTQ
Politicker
0
Account Manager
Did you start in legacy then shift to a startup?
saaskicker
Celebrated Contributor
1
Enterprise AE
started in start ups and shifted to legacy, going back to start ups soon. legacy companies like to recruit from start ups for the "grit"
SaaSsy
Politicker
4
AE
Both have been helpful at different points in time. I started at a few legacy companies but definitely got bored and sometimes super burned by incompetent management. Went to startup land and while crazy, I do love having loads of control and knowing that my decisions have direct impact on the team and company. I think it will help my career advance more since most sales leaders will respect the hell out of a good startup story ๐Ÿคฃ
MeowMeow
Politicker
3
Senior Enterprise Account Executive
Iโ€™ve been start-up grinding for almost 8 years and I came in fresh as a CSM with zero tech experience. I smashed equity at my first startup and quickly moved through roles up to VP Sales. Iโ€™m now in my second startup and itโ€™s fresh. I get to do a lot and my position is going to grow quickly. Head of enterprise sales already and equity after 4 months. Itโ€™s not for everyone but if you can handle it, the growth and experience is wild!
TennisandSales
Politicker
3
Head Of Sales
I think legacy companies are the better bet for MOST ppl.

lots of ppl will say that in a start up you can advance faster......but thats only if you are really good. if you are a B player or worse it will really show.

A legacy company tends to have better support and career progression.

but it really depends on the person.

but if you are asking in GENERAL? id say legacy company.
BTQ
Politicker
2
Account Manager
Note: this question isnโ€™t so much about job security but more about which type of company helped you progress in your career
punishedlad
Tycoon
2
Business Development Team Lead
There's a few threads on this from the past:

https://bravado.co/war-room/posts/start-up-vs-legacy-company-job-security

https://bravado.co/war-room/posts/best-company-for-sdr-ae-startup-vs-corp-corp

Personally, I've only worked the startup circuit so I can't really speak to the corporate side of things. Similar to you, startups were all that would take me early on in my career and I'm kind of an addict now.
detectivegibbles
Politicker
2
Sales Director
Start-up led me to my legacy and it's worked out great!
CuriousFox
WR Officer
2
๐ŸฆŠ
Legacy. I was burned by a start up once. And that was enough for me.
Space_Ghost20
Valued Contributor
1
Account Executive
I've only worked in startups and despite the lip service most people pay to the startup experience, I haven't really seen where it's been valuable. Been the opposite, to be honest.
GDO
Politicker
1
BDM
I love my work life at a legacy.
oldcloser
Arsonist
1
๐Ÿ’€
I think itโ€™s mostly dependent on the humans in the C suite. If theyโ€™ve got successful exits behind them there wonโ€™t be so much โ€œwheel yanking.โ€ If the board is accomplished, that can lend sanity too. My last was with a couple of bootstrapped first timers and no board. The power struggle between them made it straight painful. But Iโ€™m a glutton for it. Right back in the soup with this one.
ChumpChange
Politicker
1
Channel Manager
Worked at Fortune 100 and now work in a Series C unicorn.

Legacy is very structured and rigid. The promotion path is slow and arduous... often determined by relationships and not capabilities. Absolutely no direction on either the vision or execution. Here's what you need and do what your told mentality. Really boring and repetitive tasks. Siloed from working with other departments. Stable employment and solid benefits and compensation packages.

Start-ups will teach more in one year than a Legacy company will in five. Feels like my day is now 4X faster with more dynamics in the day-to-day. Decisions, projects, and problems are being solved in real-time, and more often than not it requires cross-functional participation. You often have a voice in the vision and execution regardless of rank/tenure. Processes are not fully baked and require constant tinkering and testing. Tooling is not at the level that a Legacy company has. Harder to sell without a massive brand presence supporting you. Comp is attractive but the downside is that 10,000 shares of a company that goes under end up being jack-shit.

Long story short... depends on what you want in your career and most importantly the day-to-day.
Maximas
Tycoon
1
Senior Sales Executive
Security and Stability for legacy.
Opportunities and Promotions for startups.
General rule I believe in with exceptions of course!
CuriousBard
Good Citizen
1
Regional Sales Manager
Worked at legacy company for 1,5 years, then switched to start-up/scale-up (Series C at the time).

My general advice for a person starting in sales is to start at a legacy company. You get to focus on only learning how to sell, and there will be plenty of resources to help you hone your craft.

In start-ups, the sheer chaos of things (no/few sales processes set, a lot of trial&error, few resources to help you learn) will make your life a lot harder, and apart from learning how to do sales, you will also need to learn how to create and refine a process, which is very difficult when you are new to the game.

Better to do a few years (2-4 I'd say) at a legacy and then jump to a start-up if you want. It will benefit you greatly.

Just don't stay too long in the legacy company, once you've done 10+ years it will be very tough to move to a start-up.

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