Techcrunch put together a great post which listed 9 questions you should ask before you accept a startup job. Here’s the list of questions:
- Has the CEO built a business before?
- Does the company have good funding?
- Do you believe in the vision?
- Do you believe in their latest round valuation?
- What can you learn?
- How do the partners get along?
- What are the current demographic trends?
- When will they IPO?
- Do you see the path to profitability?
While I think you have to take each of these questions with a grain of salt and they represent the silicon valley culture, they do provide a good framework for evaluating a job at a healthcare IT startup company as well.
The two most important ones to me are “Do you believe in the vision?” and “What can you learn?” If you have both of those in place, then you’ll likely have a good experience at the company. One they didn’t list was “Do you think you’ll enjoy working with the founders and other members of the company?” My guess is they considered this too generic. However, this is particularly important in a small company where you’re going to spend a lot of time together. There’s no where to go and hide in a startup company. So, you better like the people you’re working with.
Hopefully this list helps you if you’re considering working for a healthcare IT startup company.