Startup Work 1 - The bug

"Do you want to come build something?"

It was an important question, something I had been thinking a lot about lately.

You can't know the answer if you never ask the question. I had never asked it myself.

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I didn't think much about startups when I was younger. I had always focused on school, moving from one grade to the next, excelling enough to keep doors open.

After seven years on Capitol Hill in DC - where I worked as a Jack of all Trades - I grew tired of the reactionary posture of government and was eager for the pace, growth (and comp!) of the private sector.

I used business school to make that transition. Like many MBAs, I figured I'd work in consulting to cut my teeth on a series of projects across sectors in order to hone in on a longer term plan.

Fortunately, during my summer internship, I landed at a brand new social enterprise consultancy for startups - and my client would be Andrew Yang's Venture for America. So a startup consulting for a startup that encouraged young people to work at startups. Very meta.

After zero startup exposure to that point, I suddenly found myself working with lots of smart, motivated and ambitious young people.

After rigid government hierarchies, now recent grads sat elbow to elbow with founders and CEOs who had the desperate optimism that drove them to try to fly while building planes from scratch.

After seeing the energy, the brainpower, the clarity of mission, the obvious stakes - make this a viable business, or fail - not only did I know I wanted to work at a startup, I couldn't imagine pursuing the typical management consulting track.

I had the bug. The startup bug.