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How We Secretly Lose Control of Our Startups
Should Kids Follow in Our Founder Footsteps?
The Evolution of Entry Level Workers
Assume Everyone Will Leave in Year One
Stop Listening to Investors
Was Mortgaging My Life Worth it?
What's My Startup Worth in an Acquisition?
When Our Ambition is Our Enemy
Are Startups in a "Silent Recession"?
The 5 Types of Startup Funding
What Is Startup Funding?
Do Founders Deserve Their Profit?
Michelle Glauser on Diversity and Inclusion
The Utter STUPIDITY of "Risking it All"
Committees Are Where Progress Goes to Die
More Money (Really Means) More Problems
Why Most Founders Don't Get Rich
Investors will be Obsolete
Why is a Founder so Hard to Replace?
We Can't Grow by Saying "No"
Do People Really Want Me to Succeed?
Is the Problem the Player or the Coach?
Will Investors Bail Me Out?
The Value of Actually Getting Paid
Why do Founders Suck at Asking for Help?
Wait a Minute before Giving Away Equity
You Only Think You Work Hard
SMALL is the New Big — Embracing Efficiency in the Age of AI
The 9 Best Growth Agencies for Startups
This is BOOTSTRAPPED — 3 Strategies to Build Your Startup Without Funding
Never Share Your Net Worth
A Steady Hand in the Middle of the Storm
Risk it All vs Steady Paycheck
How About a Startup that Just Makes Money?
How to Recruit a Rockstar Advisor
Why Having Zero Experience is a Huge Asset
My Competitor Got Funded — Am I Screwed?
The Hidden Treasure of Failed Startups
If It Makes Money, It Makes Sense
Why do VCs Keep Giving Failed Founders Money?
$10K Per Month isn't Just Revenue — It's Life Support
The Ridiculous Spectrum of Investor Feedback
Startup CEOs Aren't Really CEOs
Series A, B, C, D, and E Funding: How It Works
Best Pitch Decks Ever: The Most Successful Fundraising Pitches You Need to Know
When to Raise Funds
Why Aren't Investors Responding to Me?
Should I Regret Not Raising Capital?
Unemployment Cases — Why I LOOOOOVE To Win Them So Much.
How Much to Pay Yourself
Heat-Seeking Missile: WePay’s Journey to Product-Market Fit — Interview with Rich Aberman, Co-Founder of Wepay
The R&D technique for startups: Rip off & Duplicate
Why Some Startups Win.
Chapter #1: First Steps To Validate Your Business Idea
Product Users, Not Ideas, Will Determine Your Startup’s Fate
Drop Your Free Tier
Your Advisors Are Probably Wrong
Growth Isn't Always Good
How to Shut Down Gracefully
How Does My Startup Get Acquired?
Can Entrepreneurship Be Taught?
How to Pick the Wrong Co-Founder
Staying Small While Going Big
Investors are NOT on Our Side of the Table
Who am I Really Competing Against?
Why Can't Founders Replace Themselves?
Actually, We Have Plenty of Time
Quitting vs Letting Go
How Startups Actually Get Bought
What if I'm Building the Wrong Product?
Are Founders Driven by Fear or Greed?
Why I'm Either Working or Feeling Guilty
Startup Financial Assumptions
Why Every Kid Should be a Startup Founder
We Only Have to be Right Once
If a Startup Sinks, Founders Go Down With it
Founder Success: We Need a Strict Definition of Personal Success
Is Quiet Quitting a Problem at Startup Companies?
Founder Exits are Hard Work and Good Fortune, Not "Good Luck"
Finalizing Startup Projections
All Founders are Beloved In Good Times
Our Startup Culture of Entitlement
The Bullshit Case for Raising Capital
How do We Manage Our Founder Flaws?
What If my plan for retirement is "never retire"?
Startup Failure is just One Chapter in Founder Life
6 Similarities between Startup Founders and Pro Athletes
All Founders Make Bad Decisions — and That's OK
Startup Board Negotiations: How do I tell the board I need a new deal?
Founder Sacrifice — At What Point Have I Gone Too Far?
Youth Entrepreneurship: Can Middle Schoolers be Founders?
Living the Founder Legend Isn't so Fun
Why Do VC Funded Startups Love "Fake Growth?"
How Should I Share My Wealth with Family?
How Many Deaths Can a Startup Survive?
This is Probably Your Last Success
Why Do We Still Have Full-Time Employees?
The Case Against Full Transparency
Should I Feel Guilty for Failing?
Always Take Money off the Table

The Evolution of Entry Level Workers

Wil Schroter

The Evolution of Entry Level Workers

Entry-level workers are no longer U.S. college grads—in fact, some aren't even human anymore.

The world of entry-level talent has completely changed in the past decade, particularly for startups. Not too long ago, startups raided colleges with an implicit understanding that among college grads, you could find someone who was smart (the college part), willing to work hard (lots of free time), and relatively cheap (first job).

I know this well because I was exactly that—young, relatively smart, insanely hungry, and freakishly cheap to hire. Since then, I've been trying to find my 19-year-old clone every single day of my Founder life. What has changed, though, is that the most fertile hunting grounds for those folks are no longer U.S. colleges—or the U.S. at all in some cases.

This is a particularly big deal for startups, as unlike big corporations that are hiring, we are relatively broke, we're starving for help in key roles, and we need people who are willing to take on risk. So the world of "entry level" is typically our exclusive domain for hiring for quite a long time. The good news, though, is this — entry level ain't what it used to be.

Rank #1 - AI

The biggest sea change is the rise of AI to replace an ungodly number of tasks and roles exponentially faster and cheaper. Now, like any entry-level talent, it may be affordable, but the current state of AI is also wildly prone to errors. It's more like hiring a college intern who in theory, could get loads of work done at a fraction of the cost, but in reality, you spend more time correcting their work than getting it done.

But as AI improves, that will certainly change. First, it will start with mundane tasks that were exclusively the domain of entry-level folks because, frankly, anyone could just show up and do them. That's a big issue for the rest of the entry-level world because, for a long time, many entry-level applicants' only qualification was "showing up and doing the work" until they learned beyond that.

Next, it will continue with more nuanced work, such as writing marketing copy or managing customer support. Many of these tasks employ legions of entry-level workers, but they also involve routine responses and outcomes that are very prone to automation. This automation will simply change the bar for what entry-level work is, like the doorman being replaced by an automatic door.

Rank #2 - Global Talent

For those tasks that can't be automated and require skill-based talent, the accessibility of a talented, global workforce has never been more viable. I give a lot of credit to platforms like UpWork, which have made connecting with and managing this talent pool significantly easier than in the past.

At Startups.com, we employ a fantastic customer success team from the Philippines, a marketing and design team from Serbia, and team members from nearly a dozen countries—and the integration is seamless. Since we're all on Slack and have become remote, the difference between communicating with a team member in Serbia, the Philippines, or Ohio is zero.

The big difference here is that our "entry-level budget" for staff isn't buying us recent grads with zero experience. For example, we'd normally pay a designer with zero experience coming out of college $60k+ in the U.S. For the same budget, we could get 3 designers in Serbia who have 5-10 years of real-world experience and can bring hard-won lessons to the table. If that's the new "entry-level," I'll take entry-level all day long.

Rank #3 - Young and Hungry

Aside from global talent, another group of entry-level folks is becoming noticeably more prominent—the "young and hungry." They may or may not have college degrees, but they separate themselves from the rest by being incredibly hungry.

They supplement their lack of formal education with side hustles, projects, and contracts that give them real-world experience that simply doesn't come from formal education. Our CTO at Startups.com is a great example of this. He had 2 startups and countless project clients long before he ever graduated college. Yes, he got a degree, but he was hungry way before that.

Most of our U.S. talent has come from this category, myself included. We didn't "wait for college" to start building our careers; we just rolled our sleeves up and dug in immediately. What's great about this entry-level talent pool is that we get to bet on what they've actually done in the market, not what they might do after they get a degree.

It's worth noting that among all 3 categories here, the talent is not only more experienced and cost-effective, but there is way more of it. We've simultaneously increased supply while significantly lowering costs, which means the workforce for aspiring startups just got a hell of a lot more interesting.

In Case You Missed It

What to Expect in the First Year (podcast) As Founders, we think we know how our products and businesses will look and function for years to come, but as with time, it's nearly impossible to expect the unexpected.

Growth Isn’t Always Good In many cases, our focus on growth runs counter to what our goals really should be: becoming a better startup — not just a bigger one.

Is it Worth Trying to Change People? We can't change someone's personality, attempting to do so is a waste of energy, a waste of time, and definitely a lost cause. Put your time and effort into someone else!

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