The reality of startup life

For a long time, I thought startup jobs were the dream.

Big salaries. Equity packages. Fast-paced culture. The idea of being part of something new and exciting, building a company from the ground up.

But over the last few years, I’ve had a closer look at what that really means. Not through my own career, but through my girlfriend and a few close friends who’ve been working in early-stage companies. And what I’ve seen is very different from the structure and security I’m used to in financial services.

In startups, change is the only constant. Priorities can flip overnight. One week the focus is on growth, the next it’s product, the week after it’s partnerships. Roadmaps shift, marketing strategies get rewritten, and projects that people have poured months into can suddenly be scrapped.

And because headcount is small and resources are thin, people are often pulled way outside the roles they were hired for. One person ends up wearing three or four hats, because the business is still figuring out what it even needs.

None of this is a criticism. It’s just the reality of trying to build something new with limited time and limited money. Startups live under the pressure of the runway, the countdown to the next funding round, the next target that has to be hit to keep the lights on.

But the cost of that pressure is huge.

The people inside these businesses often live with a level of uncertainty I don’t see anywhere else. They’re dealing with shifting deadlines, unclear priorities, and the constant need to prove themselves. And in the back of their minds is the quiet but very real question: will this job even exist in six months?

It’s exhausting.

And what’s even harder is that many of them don’t feel they can stop to catch their breath. By the time they realise things aren’t working, they’re already too burnt out to find another role. The fear of stepping away without something else lined up is overwhelming, and the cycle just continues.

This is why I keep coming back to financial planning.

Not in the sense of “here’s how to manage your money perfectly”, but as a way of creating breathing room. When you know you’ve built a buffer, when you’re clear on your real cost of living, when you’ve got a safety net in place, you give yourself options.

You can walk away from a role that’s burning you out.
You can take time to recover before your next move.
You can make decisions from a place of strength instead of fear.

In an environment where almost everything is uncertain, having a few financial constants makes all the difference.

Because work will always have its ups and downs. But knowing that you’re secure, no matter what happens, means you’re not trapped by the chaos around you.

And that freedom, the ability to move forward without panic, is worth more than any equity package.

If you'd like to figure out how to give yourself that breathing room, I’m here for a chat.