<story><title>A conversation with Shel Kaphan, Amazon’s first employee (2016)</title><url>https://blog.ycombinator.com/employee-1-amazon/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>abhinav22</author><text>I am a mid-senior level employee at a non-tech semi startup. It sucks. The founder wants everybody to work at his pace, and since he’s your boss, you have to mostly.&lt;p&gt;There isn’t much growth for pay increases or promotions since it’s not a large company, and job security isn’t the best because it’s a semi startup.&lt;p&gt;And since the founder is paying you directly from his pockets, he really wants to extract a full pound of flesh for every dollar he gives you.&lt;p&gt;He promised a few of the more senior employees a cut if we got external money, but when we got that, he didn’t give it to them and they both left to form their own company.&lt;p&gt;Working in a small startup style company without negotiating a cut of the ownership via shares, is being a sucker - you do 80% of the work &amp;amp; intensity for the owner and are left with not much if it takes off, unless you can find a good enough company that promotes you as it grows larger, and not just replace you because they can afford somebody with more credentials.&lt;p&gt;Some people may come back and say not to join such companies but pick wiser, but the harsh reality is that most of these startups founders are narcissistic and would sell you out for a dollar.&lt;p&gt;This is a just a warning and insight to anyone thinking of joining these companies.&lt;p&gt;For me, I can’t wait until the pandemic ends and I can find a better job elsewhere.</text></comment>
<story><title>A conversation with Shel Kaphan, Amazon’s first employee (2016)</title><url>https://blog.ycombinator.com/employee-1-amazon/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>kirillzubovsky</author><text>If you like that, check out this interview with Amazon’s second employee too. Lots of early startup lessons in there.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.raddadshow.com&amp;#x2F;episode&amp;#x2F;paul-davis&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.raddadshow.com&amp;#x2F;episode&amp;#x2F;paul-davis&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>