❗The Epidemic of Talents Bouncing Between Startups: “BANDWAGON JUMPERS” in the Startup Ecosystem❗
Yes, I’m back from holidays for the 2nd season of my newsletter about the Egyptian Startup Ecosystem!
I had hopes to have by now signed a contract with my production to company to have the old and new articles become an online series, but we’re still waiting for the final signatures from our potential partners/sponsors, so incase you’re not a fan of reading articles, I promise you soon all of my content will become video substance for your convenience. (Check some of my non-entrepreneurship previous content here: https://bit.ly/3w9NC5O )
Now that I got this out of my system, season 2 is going to be raw, unfiltered and sometimes ruthless. I like learning from all the entrepreneurs and investors I meet every day and I love sharing my learnings and insights to all of you startup fanatics out there!
I’m not in the business of exposing the good and the bad about startups or the ecosystem, I just enjoy giving myself and others a reality check to help us become the best version of ourselves.
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So today’s article is inspired by the transition phase I’m in, where I decided to jump from being a founder of my 2nd startup “The Trainer” and a Head of BD & Market Launcher of my MENA’s biggest EdTech “Noon The Social Learning Platform” to getting a broader exposure in a VC and managing an investment portfolio of EdTech startups while getting exposed to our FinTech startup portfolio too. (gaining a skillset and a mindset completely different from the one I have developed over the past half a decade)
Right before Eid Holidays I spoke to some of the founders of the startups I’m working with and I realized something, they’re not just suffering from talent acquisition and retention.
A new pattern has risen in our startup ecosystem that founders & HR teams are trying to fight:
Jumper Profiles
(Aka Bandwagon Jumpers)
DEFINING BANDWAGON JUMPERS & HOW THEY HURT STARTUPS SELFISHLY!
Bandwagon jumpers are talents who literally JUMP from one startup to another after very short spans, with the aim of “growth-hacking” their career development by getting better packages, bigger titles OR blindly chasing the trendy startups and industries that are getting all the attention in our ecosystem.
Now depending on who you are, you will react differently to my definition of the jumper profiles phenomenon!
If you’re a “talent” in the market, you might feel worried to identify if this applies on you. You might also wonder if I’m against you chasing career growth! (unless you’ve had a few career coaching sessions with me, then you know where I personally stand with this)
On the other hand, if you’re a founder, Chief of Staff or HR leader in a startup; you already know the pain and scars these talents leave behind when they jump-ship so fast to follow the new trending “hype” startup!
Before I clarify things, I just want to dive deeper into explaining what this phenomena is all about!
This isn’t a case of an Egyptian Manchester United fan switching to cheering for Liverpool because is it’s kind of patriotic to root for a team with our hometown hero MO SALAH doing magic there! (Although hardcore fans will really despise these people and call them plastic fans)
You see, in football, no one is hurt if you root for the other team. It’s just a sentimental issue more or less. (again, no offense hardcore football fans)
In the case of startups, they have very few senior & managerial positions for talents who should be working together to achieve stretched and aggressive business plans that are all time-bound & tight for completion to be able to raise another investment in order to basically survive!
So when founders trust you to build and lead a function in their startup, they’re not trusting you for this role, they’re basically trusting you with the survival chances that are directly linked to your contribution!
If you spend just a few months with them and with the first wave of normal struggles you face at work you choose to join the “next big” logistics startup or the trendy FinTech startup that raised 8-digit funding a couple of days ago, you’re really causing a massive headache to the founders!
Even though jumper profiles are historically frowned upon even in corporates, and are labeled as “disloyal” by many HR managers, but the case with startups is far beyond that! Jumping from one telecom to another does not have the same impact on the company as having the Head of Growth Marketing or Head of Engineering leaving an early-stage startup! For most corporates, the cost of on-boarding these new top talents is the major loss besides the time invested in finding them. But for startups it’s much more complicated!
So what happens when senior startup managers leave within a few months of getting hired to join a sexier startup? (assuming there is no major internal/external reason causing them to quit)
Jumper Profiles tend to not just leave behind a ton of workload, but also a trail of unfulfilled OKRs that if not achieved may choke the startup to death & at this stage there aren’t a lot of calibers that can pick things up from where these jumpers left them!
HOW DID “BANDWAGON JUMPERS” BECOME AN EPIDEMIC IN THE STARTUP ECOSYSTEM?!
There are multiple factors that in my opinion are causing this trend we’re seeing recently, & while most of them make sense, one of them has been driving me crazy.
Startups are the reason this phenomenon has accelerated!
Bold claim isn’t it?
You see, we all know that the demand for talents is higher than their supply. Why?
1) A lot of the talents in our ecosystem have not been upskilled properly especially in high in demand tech careers!
2) We haven’t reached a critical mass of post-series A startups in Egypt (yet) that can hire talents and help them get experience!
This naturally inflates the pricing of a lot of talents while giving their profiles the leverage in negotiating their packages mainly because they’re considered a rare commodity due to their scarcity!
Automatically “SOME” of these talents (who don’t have a lot of experience in how to navigate their careers and are bombarded daily by hiring offers) tend to abuse this temporary advantage they have been granted.
Another layer to this issue is that founders that “steal talents” from other startups assume that their startup is DIFFERENT and that this talent they head-hunted won’t leave them in a similar situation!
Unfortunately, “SOME” of them might be blindly opportunistic to the extent they they would view your startup as just another jumping pad for their next career milestone!
& the cycle continues!
I’ve met founders who try to unconsciously validate to themselves hiring these jumper profiles by “forgiving” and overlooking their pattern of bouncing around startups just because they really need to hire someone with their technical skills!
This article gave you more questions than answers right?
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Well, in part 2 (that I should publish by Wed or Thurs inshAllah) I will address these 2 points:
How to know if you’re becoming a jumper profile yourself?
How can Founders & HR team detect a bandwagon jumper?
(و يعلم عليهم)
