What is the one thing you wish you knew before joining your first startup?

I joined my first startup straight out of college, completely brainwashed by the hustle culture. i genuinely thought I was going to build the next unicorn, get rich, and retire by 30. I drank the Kool-Aid by the gallon.

If I could go back in time, grab my 22-year-old self by the collar, and slap some sense into him, I would tell him this: "Ownership" is the biggest scam word ever invented in the Indian startup ecosystem.

When founders sit across the table and say, "We want you to take extreme ownership," what they actually mean is, "We are too cheap to hire a proper team, so you are going to do the work of a backend dev, a QA, and a product manager, but we will only pay you a fresher's CTC."

They will aggressively lowball your in-hand salary and shove ESOPs down your throat to compensate. "Bro, we are on a rocketship. When we do our Series C, these options will be worth 2 Crores." Let's be brutally honest here—90% of these startups will slowly bleed out and die. Those ESOPs are literally worth less than the 1-ply tissue paper in the office washroom. Your landlord in HSR Layout does not accept vested stock options. Swiggy doesn't let you pay for your midnight biryani with equity. Cash is king. Always negotiate for the highest base pay.

Then there’s the "we are a family" BS. It’s not a family; it’s a toxic cult If you pack your bag at 7 PM, you get the passive-aggressive side-eye from the founder who sleeps on a beanbag. You are expected to reply on Slack at 11:30 PM on a Sunday because someone had a "visionary shower thought."

Meanwhile, I watched my peers who joined boring MNCs make steady money, log off at 6 PM, go to the gym, and actually have a dating life. I spent my early 20s stress-eating, fixing production bugs at 2 AM, and losing my hair for a company that eventually pivoted three times and fired half the team anyway.

I learned the hard way that blind loyalty gets you nothing but burnout.

So, asking everyone here: What is the ONE thing you wish you knew before joining your first startup? Drop your truth bombs. Let's save some freshers from making our mistakes.