Joined early stage startup. It was a thin AI wrapper.

The team was young and inexperienced but I wanted to believe in them. Too bad they did not want to believe in me. Laid off shortly after moving to San Francisco. First time I've ever had to break a lease. I also left the best job of my career to join them.

My advice to others; don't join startups before they've at least reach series B.

When you join a company that young there are other risks aside from the product itself. i.e Do they even know what roles they should be hiring for?

So many red flags that I missed: - emphasis on being in office when all the other engineers worked remote from the other side of the world - overly easy interview process - fake customers (Founder had connections in those companies)

Hopefully someone else can learn from my mistake.

Our team is fine. But hiring freeze means we have to stretch thin. I'm getting burnt out by the ad-hoc tasks and am researching how to coop with it.