A few months ago, I was offerred the opportunity to join a startup as a cofounder. I asked a friend for advice and he asked me to define my motivations. They were:

1. To build and have ownership of something I loved
2. To create something that had the potential to impact many people in a beneficial way

As I've understood it, **impact** in this sense is not inwardly focused,  like the impact you could have on a product. It is outwardly focused, as in, the impact your product could have on the world.¹

If impact ranks in one of the reasons you're thinking about getting into startups– either as an employee or founder– you might want to rethink your motivations. If you want to





1- for the inward focused definition of impact, I would argue that control or influence would be better terms. You can influence product decisions, but if those decisions aren't seen by a large user base, what impact did you really have?