#hiringfriday 07.14.23 - stage matters edition
Hello again from a New York City heat wave. I’m alternating between hiding in my basement office and hanging out at the pool with my kids. Given the time of year, many of the calls I’ve been taking have been with graduating MBAs figuring out what’s next. I know that feeling well - I graduated from B-school with an internship that paid less than my pre-school consulting job (luckily it converted to full time).
One of the questions that often comes up is how to think about choosing a company stage to target. There are the obvious factors - stability, compensation, role definition. But the way I often frame the biggest difference between early stage and later stage or public companies is one of “learning by doing” versus “learning by example.”
“Learning by doing” accurately describes all of my earlier stage experiences. You’re working with a great team, but they’re generally doing things for the first time. The upside is that you’ll probably have more responsibility and more room for growth. The trade-off is that you’ll have to become a bit of a Macgyver, figuring out how to get stuff done, and recognizing not all of your processes may scale.
“Learning by example” is what happens once you get to a company with product-market fit, and specialization. You’re probably taking a more defined functional role, and hopefully working for a manager who has more experience in that area and in leading people. You’re building for scale, and learning from folks who have done this before. The trade-off here is less flexibility and a more rigid (for a startup) career and promotion path.
Neither of these is better than the other - I’ve chosen both scenarios at different points in my career. If you’re job seeking, I encourage you to ask yourself what sounds most compelling to you right now, and use that to guide your search.
How do you think about these trade-offs? Is there another framework you found helpful? Feel free to comment or reach out!
-Julia
Who’s Hiring.
An eclectic selection of companies I know and companies who let me know they’re hiring. Check out our pallet for more featured roles.
Affect Therapeutics - digital meth and cocaine treatment
Alivecor - AI powered heart health care
Ash - remote diagnostic testing
Autism Cares Partners - empowering children and their families
Better Health - transforming DME through connection
Brightline - behavioral therapy for kids and teens
Brightside Health - evidenced-based care for behavioral health
Candid Health* - easy, automated medical billing
Care+Wear* - healthware to support patients and providers
CareMessage - helping safety net orgs fulfill the needs of the underserved
CertifyOS - provider licensing, network management, and credentialing
Coral Care - helping families find the pedatric development support they need
Charlie Health - healing for teens and young adults
Elephant Island Labs - venture lab building healthcare and fintech companies
Equip* - virtual family-based care for eating disorders
Firefly - virtual, full-service primary care
firsthand - transforming how people with SMI engage with care
Flourish - combatting burnout
Galileo - virtual and in-person primary care
Ginger/Headspace* - on-demand mental health support
Happify - Dtx and care delivery solutions to improve mental and physical health
Hopelab - non profit at the forefront of digital mental health interventions
ICANotes - behavioral health EHR
InStride Health - evidence-based Anxiety and OCD treatment for families
Kela Health - predictive insight software to help improve surgical quality
Little Otter - pediatric mental health
Lyra Health - a smarter approach to emotional health
Lucet (formerly New Directions) - managed behavioral health services
Mantra Health - Providing high-quality digital mental health care to higher ed
Manatee Health - digital mental health for children and families
Miro Health* - clinically validated brain health tools, research and care
Nema Health - trauma-informed PTSD care
NOCD - virtual OCD care
Osmind - platform designed for treatment-resistant mental health practices
Parsley Health - root cause resolution medicine
PatientPing (Bamboo) - connecting care facilities
Pearl Health - direct contracting for primary care
Plume - gender-affirming hormone therapy from your phone.
Pomelo Care - virtual maternity care program
Ribbon Health - API layer for accurate data on doctors, plans, and costs
RubiconMD - democratizing medical expertise.
Two Chairs - personalized mental health care in therapy clinics
Spring Health - Personalized mental healthcare for your whole team
Third Way Health - revolutionizing the front office for medical practices
Thirty Madison* - transforming specialty care
Visana - virtual women’s health clinic
Virta Health - reversing type 2 diabetes
VivorCare* - survivorship programs, starting with cancer
Uno - connecting low-income individuals to the financial assistance they need
Uplift* - therapy arranged around you
Zus Health* - accelerating digital health builders with API-first services
*I have an advisory or equity relationship with this company
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