Kartoffelsoft

The 'too big, too small, just right' rocket-ship rule for joining startups

Josh Elman describes joining companies late enough to have momentum but early enough to matter. Microsoft in 1995 was too big (he worked on custom Excel charts among tens of thousands), a 10-person pre-product-market-fit company was too small, and the sweet spot is a company working 'enough' that you can have huge impact and outsized equity.

“I worked on custom charts within Excel. I looked around and there were tens of thousands of other people working on other minuscule things that added up to this giant Microsoft. The next summer, I interned for a 10-person company then called Kartoffelsoft. It didn't quite have product-market fit and it was trying to find its way through. I was like, "Oh, that's almost too small. I want something with a little bit of momentum or where I can tell the story to myself of why it can be giant for the world."”

Steal thisTarget companies with proven momentum but unproven scale: working enough to derisk, early enough that your equity 10x's.