Why start your career in a startup?

Welcome to the Balancix blog, the space where we help you discover how to take your first steps in the professional world with opportunities that truly add value to your future. Whether you’re technically skilled or not, with Balancix you can have the chance to enter the fascinating world of startups.

If you’re finishing college or have just graduated, you’re probably wondering: Where do I start? You may have already heard about startups, but if not, don’t worry—we’ll tell you why they’re revolutionizing the future of work.

Startups are newly created companies designed to scale and reach millions of customers or users in a short time. While this sounds challenging, it also means they’re perfect environments for real learning. In particular, early-stage startups allow you to develop key skills like leadership, critical thinking, creativity, and digital product development.

But the best part is the environment: dynamic teams, innovative cultures, and young people with the same energy and desire to create something big. In this article, we’ll tell you why taking your first step in a startup could be the best beginning for your professional future.

Getting Your First Professional Opportunity in Startups

Finding your first internship can be challenging, even more so if you decide to jump into the startup world. Although this industry continues to grow in our region, it’s still relatively new. To put it in perspective, in the United States, the venture capital (VC) backed startup ecosystem has almost 79 years of history, while in Latin America, we’ve only had about 40 years since this type of investment began to expand, as Natalia González mentioned in the Accionables podcast.

The Great Challenge of University Education

Being a relatively new industry, many universities in the region have no idea of all the new job opportunities that these types of investments and companies are currently generating in our region. There’s a significant gap between what is taught in classrooms and what startup founders are really looking for when building a world-class team. A large part of the success of any early-stage startup depends on the team.

From my personal experience working for a startup, I can say that founders are constantly looking for talent to open new areas or simply because they need to fill a position when someone leaves the team. What’s interesting here is that many of the candidates I saw during my previous job were eager to learn but arrived completely lost on their first day, not knowing how to use a CRM, prospecting tools, productivity tools, or work frameworks. This wasted managers’ time because they had to conduct a much longer onboarding of 3 to 4 weeks.

English Language Remains a Major Barrier

Most surprisingly, in the startup where I worked, more than 50% couldn’t maintain a work conversation in English. This frustrated our CEO, as some investors from other countries wanted to have brief chats with employees as part of their due diligence process.

That’s why I didn’t want to sit idle and tried to create the first training program for university students and recent graduates to help them get their first 100% remote internship in early-stage startups. No theoretical classes or outdated content. But that’s not all—thanks to the contacts I made in this industry, I found a way to create partnerships and referral programs that increase the probability that our students who successfully complete the program can be recommended to top startups in Latin America and the US.

And the best part is that 80% of these internship opportunities are paid in dollars.

Finally, I want to close this first article by making a summary list of the reasons why working in an early-stage startup can open many doors for you and be a unique experience:

1. Accelerated Learning Curve:

You'll learn a bit of everything in record time. You'll see how processes and strategies are built from scratch, you'll participate in multiple areas, etc.

2. Working Closely with Founders:

This means you'll learn directly from super intelligent people, and above all, your work will have a direct impact.

3. Compensation in USD + Stock Options:

The vast majority of startups manage their income in dollars, which is why they frequently pay salaries in this currency as well.

Regarding stock options, we'll leave that for another upcoming article, but it's already a good incentive that startups use to keep early employees who believe in the company's vision motivated.

4. Networking and Diverse Environment:

What every student or recent graduate lacks. In the startup world, it's very common to be part of teams located in different parts of the world, and many stakeholders are brilliant people who can later serve as strategic contacts.

We hope this information has helped you get a clearer picture of the opportunities that startups offer. If you still have no idea about the most in-demand roles in this industry, don’t hesitate to contact us, and we’ll gladly provide you with more information about our programs.

This is just the beginning of something big 🚀.

Team Balancix.