"Should I join a rocket ship?"

Last week, I was speaking with a peer who was considering joining a hot startup. The role didn’t seem perfect but their primary rationale was “it’s a rocket ship.” After all, Sheryl Sandberg & Eric Schmidt have cemented their place in Silicon Valley lore with their quote, “if you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat. Just get on.” This line of thinking triggered a profound negative reaction in me, based on my past experiences. Sure, getting on a rocket ship is a no brainer if it’s Facebook or Google. But most rocket ships ceilings are 0.1% as high as those companies. Yes, that’s right: 0.1% of $1T is still $1B — a unicorn. For those “normal” unicorns, this advice rings hollow.

Why doesn’t this advice make sense for the normal highly successful startup? Let’s start with my own personal story.

In the mid 2010s I had made the jump from boring finance to fun digital media startups. It was the wild west in digital media and I was having the time of my life. So when an opportunity arose to join Axios as an executive, I was, predictably, pretty excited. After all, this was the rocket ship in my industry. And, by the way, my prediction of the company’s success proved to be spot on: in 2022, just over 5 years after its inception, Axios sold for a whopping $525M. To put this in context, this was by far the largest top line price tag in digital media in a long, long time — the company was a smash hit in every measurable way.

So, trickle down economics worked… right? I was offered a seat on a rocket ship, I asked few questions, I just got on — and my own career had catapulted because of it… right? Short answer: not really. I enjoyed my time at the company, have a deep respect for my colleagues, and left to co-found my own startup a few years later… but I cannot say that the experience transformed me in any way.

Why? My superpower was data, analysis, and digital marketing. As Ken Auletta detailed in his 2018 New Yorker article, How the Math Men Overthrew the Mad Men, I was part of the group of quantitatively-minded folks disrupting a marketing & advertising industry that had been run on “feel” and relationships for decades. With the new tools at our disposal, we were able to track performance, target potential customers, and analyze our success in a radically more accurate way than ever before. Without a hint of arrogance, I can say that I was really, really good in this arena. And I’m sure the Axios founders agreed, which is why they offered me a ticket on their rocket ship. I was excited to bring this superpower, which was transforming media left & right, to the company.

But, when I got there, I quickly realized that this super power was just plain unimportant in this new environment. Unlike the rest of the digital media world, Axios had found a little slice of the advertising market that didn’t at all care about ROI. The advertisers were a group of folks who were interested in corporate advocacy (i.e. lobbying) to a very specific group of individuals (i.e. congresspeople who were passing laws in their industries). Those congresspeople read Axios religiously, primarily because of their long-time affiliations to some of the company’s top journalists — and there was a chance that native advertising from those advertisers seeking to lobby certain points of view, would break through to them. Think about this for a second: the ROI on an advertisement could be absolutely 0 but if you reach that one congressperson, the entire multi-million dollar buy was worth it. The size of the audience could be miniscule but if the 10 people who really mattered were in that miniscule audience, the entire model worked.

Oops: this was no place for my skills. It was a rocket ship for sure but not one I would ever steer. I’d never be the Chief Marketing Officer at a place where data-driven marketing was of second importance. I’d never get the tap on the shoulder. At first, I reacted with bitterness — how could they not understand how the media world was changing?! With time, my bitterness has subsided and I have recognized that, actually, it was me, not them. The best way to optimize this business was to treat my superpowers as secondary. The way to win was by building a very personal brand with the small group of influencers, and small group of specific advertisers — and to hire leaders whose superpowers & experience aligned with that vision. That’s what they did. And they nailed it.

The general rule at play here

Of course, it’s important to join a rocket ship. If you’re in the startup ecosystem, you know clearly that your potential is directly tied to the company’s potential. If you are a high performer, and the company grows, you will inevitably grow. If either of those two variables isn’t up & to the right — the entire thing falls apart.

But, it’s equally important that, at that rocket ship, your superpowers are also the company’s superpowers. We’ve all heard about product-market fit. This is similar: superpower-company fit. When you’re thinking about your next big career move, make sure you’re joining a rocket ship, and make sure that rocket ship wins as a direct result of the superpowers you bring to the table. If not, even the highest performers will likely be disappointed.