5 Things I Learned Working My First Job At a Startup

A college graduate walks into an early stage startup…

Neha Bhasin
2 min readMay 10, 2021

8 months ago, I joined the Hora.AI team to launch India’s first women-exclusive lending platform. I learned a few things along the way, realized they deserve more recognition than my notes app can give, and decided to write this piece. Here we go :)

🚀 Don’t let perfection get in the way of progress.
This feedback challenged me the most, and it’s also the one I’m most grateful for today. Finding the balance between speed and quality can be a great challenge, but it’s well worth it — speed is a competitive advantage and execution is everything.

Questions > answers.
We spend so much time and energy trying to figure out the right answers, we forget how important it is to be asking the right questions. After realizing no one had all the answers, I became comfortable thinking out loud and asking more questions throughout conversations. This lead me to think with clearer intention, challenge assumptions, and explore more possibilities. I ended up finding some of the right answers too. :)

👋🏽 Ownership is more about attitude than responsibility.
I heard the word “ownership” a lot and always thought about it in terms of responsibility. I remember thinking to myself, of course I’ll own my work. That’s my responsibility. I quickly realized ownership is so much more than that — it’s caring deeply about your work, holding yourself accountable, and thinking like a founder.

🌠 Find beauty in the chaos.
Working at a startup is nothing short of a rollercoaster — remember to enjoy the ride! Things are gonna get messy with highs and lows when you least expect them. Just remember to soak it all in and celebrate the milestones, no matter how small. :)

🥟 Momos make everything better.
If you know me, you know I’m a huge foodie. Luckily, Hora is full of foodies and a prominent momo culture. No matter how long and busy the days got, they ended perfectly with evening momos! I’d also like to take a moment here to thank Momo King, our unofficial sponsor.

P.S: To the Bombay folks reading this — don’t worry, vada pav works too 😉

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