The rise and fall of a startup, and what I learned as a developer
Learning to program in the midst of a startup
The story of Octerra is one that is sometimes exciting, sometimes bitter, and unfortunately, very common. I worked at a startup from its conception through its end, where our funding ended up falling through, and there are a lot of things I learned in the process. Even though I consider myself a junior developer, I was able to walk away with important lessons on what makes a team really work, how to approach conflict within a small team, and why intentional culture is vital to building a company worth working for.
What’s it like to be a junior at a startup? Is everything on fire all the time?
I originally worked for StudioNow, which is the sort of “parent” company that spun out Octerra. You can read more about that here. I already knew the team when I joined, and felt extremely comfortable joining as a junior. The company had a track record of hiring junior developers and promoting within, so I knew what I was getting into. About 8 months in, it was announced that our entire tech team would be spinning out of StudioNow and creating a new startup around the SaaS platform that we created. While it was exciting, it was sort of nerve-wracking too. Most of the…
