True Story: I Left Deloitte for a Startup, and I Haven’t Looked Back
It’s the one question we all love to ask Nico Roberts, who leads customer accounts and administration at OnboardIQ: What does it take to leave a well-defined career solving far-reaching business challenges for the neck-breaking pace of a startup? Let’s hear it straight from the man himself, complete with an awesome South-African accent!
What led you to join a consulting firm?
We’re classically conditioned to work for one of the big four consulting firms as business, finance or accounting major in college. It was the definition of success. During my time, there was a certain prestige associated with joining a company like Deloitte.
I made it a goal to be a part of and carve out a career at the company. The trappings that came with working for consulting companies — the lavish travel lifestyle and setting the industry-standard for the industry of my choosing — lured me in.
What was going through your mind when you were thinking about moving to a startup?
I’ll never forget the day I started seriously considering joining a startup — I had just returned from a Deloitte Congo trip, and I called Joe (a friend of mine who’s OnboardIQ’s first employee) to ask how he was enjoying the startup life.
The excitement, exhaustion, enthusiasm, and pure love Joe had for it was all the validation I needed.
And I’ve always wanted to own my own business, so the romance associated with joining an early-stage startup was very attractive to me.
You have to understand that the corporate world does one thing to a person’s mindset and does it very well: make them more risk-averse. They bind you with golden handcuffs. Seeing colleagues climbing the corporate ladder, buying houses, and starting families chipped away at my more adventurous, risk-taking persona.
I had always preached about taking risks and doing whatever is needed to build something from the ground up, but here I was second-guessing myself since I had a good thing going. In the end, I needed a change and joining OnboardIQ seemed like the perfect opportunity.
What ultimately attracted you to join the coolest recruiting company?
- A very small team
- A very smart small team
- The opportunity to be a part of a company at the early stages
- Being smack-bang in the middle of startup mecca
- Truly taking the time to hone skills which I hadn’t used in years and also develop new ones
- Being able to contribute to the business in a variety of areas rather than strictly to its revenue, like I did at corporate.
What did the first few weeks look like?
The first weeks were an adjustment for sure. I had to re-learn some core perceptions about how a business process should run. There was also re-learning the endless testing / usage of new software and apps based on people’s preferences rather than a hierarchical procurement formal process.
Life is now filled with massive competition in Xbox FIFA and drink rounds that kept spirits high.
The nights were long, but actual tangible results were seen the next day. The pace was a huge change from where I came from — it was a lot quicker and execution of ideas happened in a matter of hours, not months.
What’s a typical day like in your role of customer accounts and administration?
- Waking up in beautiful San Francisco
- Getting a cup of decaf coffee (2% milk and one teaspoon of brown sugar)
- Going through an army of emails as well as customer inquiries / issues
- Making sure customer accounts are healthy; collecting payments
- Lunch
- Taking care of odd housekeeping bits
- Syncing up with the sales team regarding new sales / customers
- Playing a quick game of FIFA
- Meet with clients and work with the product team on feature requests
- Sync up with leadership and do a gut-check on client strategy / success
- Dinner
- Emails, customer issue specs and notification, and administrative tasks
- Wine and bed
Favorite thing about being part of a startup?
The independent, entrepreneurial free-thinking. The network you build up and the good friends you make. The never-ending learning needed to keep up with your peers and stay ahead of your competition. But really, being with a bunch of people who are passionate about what they do and truly want to see the business succeed.
Any advice for someone looking to transition from consulting to a startup?
It’s not for everyone, but if you are looking for change to spice up your career and quench your entrepreneurial thirst — then do it, just do it, doooooo it!
Make sure your have a strong Plan B: Don’t burn bridges at your previous company; have enough years, experience and skills under your belt so you could go back into industry with ease. Make sure you have enough savings to keep you afloat for six months just in case Plan A (startup) doesn’t work out. But if it does, you’ll never be happier.
If you’ve wanted to transition to startup life but still have questions, email nico@onboardiq.com. And if joining a smart and ambitious team with big dreams sounds exciting — we’re hiring at OnboardIQ.
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