The difference.

I just met a program manager for a biotech company at a social event. We did the usual intros, and when she heard that I'd been in the corporate world before becoming an entrepreneur, she said she'd always been curious as to how people make the shift. She wanted to know what was the hardest thing to get used to when going from 'corporate' to 'startup'.

For me the hardest thing to get used to was being solely responsible for everything. In my corporate experience, even in the higher ranks, even if you're the guy with the 'buck stops here' sign on your desk, most decisions are made with other very competent, experienced people involved. And you don't have to worry about the little day-to-day stuff like paying phone bills. Even if the company were to shut down, an established corporation does it in an organized way and usually hires people who's job is to do precisely that. On the other hand, an entrepreneur who's just staring out doesn't have the luxury of delegating the tough or icky jobs. If she's lucky she'll have an experienced co-founder or two who'd share some of the pain, but she'd still have to carry most of the load on her own. The entrepreneur is the one who's responsible for all of it - in a small startups, you'd see the CEO involved in the choice of coffee service - it is not unlikely that he'd have to explain why they have Starbucks instead of Peet's even if the admin made the choice for him. In the early stages the founder is the company. It is lonely up on the high wire, lonelier still when you're here without a net.

If I was not the founder, I'd think the hardest thing about a startup is the ambiguity - if you've spent many years at a corporate job, that's the first thing you'd notice. Everything could be in constant flux for quite a while: the offerings, the market, the positioning, even the prospect of getting a paycheck. I've had many ex-corporate types mention it, and while some adjusted, a few figured out that this didn't really float their boat (or if it did, it made them seasick) and bailed. If you don't have a tolerance for ambiguity and rapid change, startups are definitely not the place for you.

The next question was what did I like best about moving to a startup? Was it the freedom? No way. Freedom in a startup is an illusion - see above for a reason why. As an entrepreneur you probably have more constraints to work with, though they will be different than the ones you see in larger corporations. While you may not have 10 planning meetings before you decide to change a line on your website, you'll have stronger limitations regarding money and resources for example. Even freedom in your work schedule is mostly a dream, you are free to start and end your work day whenever as long as you start very early and end very late.

The best thing about a startup is the excitement. The high that comes from knowing everything you do has significance because you're in the process of creating something. And the sheer pleasure of being around a bunch of people who feel the same way. It can happen to some extent in large companies too, especially if you have a small, autonomous team dedicated to some key initiative and driven to succeed with incentives - but though it may feel a little like a startup, it's not quite the same because you can't get away from the fact that you're part of a larger corporation. I recently had dinner with a technologist at a Fortune 50 company who's thinking of going to a startup. When asked why, his answer was simply 'to have my work be significant'. Though he was in a position that was as close to a startup as he could get, he still felt that if his own personal contributions though well rewarded barely made an imprint on the large fabric of the corporation. He wanted to wake up every morning and feel excited about going to work because everything he did had a huge impact on his small startup team. Every member of a startup matters.

The joy of creation. For me that is the single most thrilling experience that comes from entrepreneurship.