Between large companies paying insane salaries to the cost of starting a company plummeting in the past decade, why work for a Series B company? They’re often messy, equity’s not as good as an early stage company, career ladder not as well defined as a largeco.

Series B companies are spring boards. If you are a top performer frustrated by corporate politics or a rigid career ladder, you’ll get much more responsibility faster in a series B company. Unlike in early stage startups, it will be better defined for a specific practice, so you can be a lawyer or client success manager and get promoted quickly rather than have to be “person who fixes production issues at 2am”.

Series B companies offer more visibility. At this stage organic growth usually isn’t enough so if you’re articulate or a good writer you could find yourself speaking publicly more often than you would otherwise.

Companies at this stage are also on the cusp of meaningful specialization. You can get an opportunity to own your niche area, define and grow it, be it UX or content marketing or software architecture.

I used to be part of the cult of entrepreneurship and thought that everyone should start a company. That’s silly. There are many more opportunities for scale and growth post Series A or B. While you “pay” for the reduced risk with a smaller equity windfall, most early stage startups fail anyway. If you’re an up and coming professional looking to grow fast, growth stage is the perfect time to join a startup.