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A small team, big dreams, nights spent at the office, and faith in a bright future. Success is in the air, and the team chat is full of 3 a.m. messages. That’s how young companies just starting out are usually described.
Let’s work out why the word startup became so magnetic that even large, long-established companies use it to describe themselves.
Maybe it’s not about annual revenue, company age, or maturity at all — maybe it’s about a particular set of levers of influence.
Let’s walk through some of those management techniques (red flags) that push you to work at your limit:
The atmosphere is built on close relationships, where people work not merely for money but “for the idea” and “for the common cause.” In practice, this often means overwork, no boundaries, and real awkwardness about discussing a salary increase.
In practice, equity gets diluted easily and rarely turns into money for most employees.
Hackathons, marathons, leaderboards, internal challenges — all of it creates the illusion of an exciting process. The result: people overwork but feel as though they’re having fun.
Legends circulate about how the team slept at the office and worked 20-hour days. That creates moral pressure: “If they suffered like that, how can I complain about working until 11 p.m.?”
“We want to hear your opinion,” “anyone at a startup can shape the product.” In reality, the strategic decisions are often already made, and “freedom” is limited by boundaries set by management.
Every month brings a new challenge. It keeps people on their toes, but over time it wears them out.
Ultimately, these techniques may form the foundation of the culture at one company and be entirely absent at another — yet both will call themselves startups.
Don’t be fooled. When someone says “we’re a startup,” ask what the word means to them. Maybe they mean risk, uncertainty, and the need to adapt fast — rather than tricks like these.
And that’s a completely different story.