I’ve never had a normal job
and now I’m writing an article about how to easily get a good one
but even though I’ve never had a normal job, I have something much more valuable:
after being an influencer and building a couple of successful startups, I started joining new projects as a cofounder
and I’m not talking about random early-stage startups. I mean projects that were already pretty well known
for example, I became a cofounder of a cartoon that’s been around for 16 years and has 3M+ followers
and in a pretty similar way, I became a partner at Begin Capital
so I want to share the main principles that helped me get into these positions
they can help you gain valuable experience much faster, get access to much bigger opportunities, and make some money along the way
1. why I wouldn’t apply for jobs through standard application forms
there’s a logical reason for this, and there’s research backing it up
when a founder is hiring, their job is to find the best possible person for the role
but no matter how good your hiring process is, figuring out how good someone actually is takes time
interviews only tell you so much. eventually you need to see the person work
that’s why referrals and people you already know are so valuable
someone has already worked with them, seen what they can do, and validated them over time
the risk is much lower
also, great specialists usually aren’t actively looking for jobs
if you’re really good at what you do and consistently make money for businesses, people eventually know about you
and when they need someone with your skill set, they’ll come to you
your goal is to get into that category
once you do, both your chances and the quality of opportunities you get become much better
so how do you get there?
2. clearly understand your strengths
“I can do everything” isn’t an answer
you could reframe it as:
“I have a lot of time and I’m willing to spend it”
not a bad start
but you still need to spend that time doing something useful for whoever you want to work with
look at what you do best
what’s your strongest skill?
what’s something specific about you that people remember?
an easy way to figure this out is to ask people who have actually worked with you
but ask the right questions
“am I good at marketing?” is an incredibly bad question
you’re basically asking them to validate something you already believe
ask open-ended questions instead:
“what stood out to you about working with me?”
“when did you feel like I handled something particularly well?”
“what do you think I’m unusually good at?”
let people tell you what they actually think
you should eventually end up with 1–3 things that genuinely differentiate you and that you do better than most people
you can go even further
if you have multiple hypotheses about your strengths, test them
see which one resonates most with people and creates the most interest
3. clearly understand who actually needs your strengths
being great at something doesn’t automatically make you valuable to every company
imagine you’re insanely good at building viral consumer products
that could be an incredibly valuable skill for a consumer startup
but if you walk into an HFT firm and pitch them the exact same skill, they might have absolutely no use for it
the skill didn’t become less valuable
you’re just talking to the wrong company
so once you understand what you’re good at, the next step is figuring out exactly who needs it
this is roughly how I think about it:
start with your strongest skill
figure out what result that skill can produce for a company
then figure out how that result eventually turns into money
after that, look for industries and products where this is especially valuable
and finally, find companies that need it but aren’t doing it well yet
you should be able to look at a company and build a very simple case in your head:
“you’re building X”
“right now, you’re missing Y”
“I looked at the market and Y seems to be working really well for companies like A, B and C”
“if it works for you, it could have a meaningful impact on revenue”
“I know how to build Y because I’ve already done Z”
“here are the results”
that’s the level of clarity you want before you ever reach out
you should understand exactly why this company needs what you’re good at and how your work could eventually turn into money for them
4. how to do outreach
at this point you might be thinking:
Paul, this all sounds great. obviously I need to be useful
but how do I actually get a great job?
you need to reach the founder
this probably won’t work the same way with huge corporations, so I’d focus on promising startups
you’ll probably get more experience, build better connections, and have much more upside if the company succeeds
you can meet founders:
- on X
- in relevant communities and niche groups
- through mutual connections
ideally, you want a warm intro
I explained how to get one here:
https://x.com/PaulKlayVC/status/2095544871457059136?s=20
roughly the same concept works with founders
5. how to build the relationship
once you know which founders you want to meet and how to reach them, you need to figure out what to actually say
treat it as a mix of getting to know someone and making a sale
but make it as natural and non-pushy as possible
I’d start by asking for advice while making it clear that the conversation could be interesting for them as well
something like:
“hey! i’m Paul, Venture Partner at Begin Capital and ex-cofounder of ...
been looking into ... recently and found a couple of things that seem to work really well in this market
wanted to chat with someone who actually knows the space and see what i might be missing
would love to get your take”
now you have a reason to talk that doesn’t sound like:
“hey, can you give me a job?”
once they agree to a call, go deeper
explain why you became interested in the market and show that you actually did your homework
then start asking questions around the opportunity you found
for example:
“I went through most of the competitors and noticed that a lot of them are doing X and Y. from what I can see, it seems to be working extremely well”
“you guys aren’t really doing it right now. is there a specific reason?”
listen to the answer
maybe they already tried it
maybe it didn’t work
maybe there’s something about the market you didn’t understand
or maybe they’ll say:
“yeah, we’ve actually thought about this before, we just never had the time to do it”
perfect
keep digging
show them the cases you found, explain why you think the opportunity is interesting, and walk through how it could eventually turn into money
but there’s one important thing I wouldn’t do on the first call:
don’t immediately say:
“I can do this for you”
that makes the whole conversation feel like a disguised job pitch
you want the founder to understand the opportunity first
ideally, by the end of the conversation, they should already be thinking:
“shit, maybe we actually should be doing this”
that’s where I’d stop
don’t try to close anything right away
give them some time to think about the opportunity and start looking for ways to execute it themselves
if the opportunity is real and you explained it well, there’s a good chance they’ll realize they either don’t have the right person for it or simply don’t have the time
and now they already know someone who understands the problem, has done the research, and has relevant experience
you
that’s a much better position than trying to sell yourself from minute one
and that brings us to the most important part
6. prove your maximum value with almost zero risk for the person hiring you
your job is to make saying yes as easy as possible
if you’re confident in your abilities and genuinely good at what you’re talking about, prove it
offer something like:
“I’d be interested in testing the hypotheses we discussed
you have the right product and I already have experience with this
let me try it
if it works, everyone makes money and we scale it
if it doesn’t, you lose almost nothing and still get the hypothesis tested”
that’s it
most of the risk is on you because you’re the one who needs the opportunity in the first place
and if everything you said actually makes sense, the founder now has very little reason to say no
from their perspective, it should sound something like this:
some guy showed up
everything he’s saying makes sense, and we’ve actually thought about some of it before
we just never had the time to execute
he has relevant experience and cases
and now he’s willing to prove that it works without asking for much upfront
why does that arrangement make sense for you?
because you might have the skill, but you don’t have the product where you can apply it
building the entire product yourself could take years and require a completely different set of skills
instead, you can use someone else’s existing product and distribution to prove that your skill actually creates value
maybe you make the company $5,000 and get paid $2,000
you made money
they made money
you gained experience
you built a real case study
and now you have a much stronger position to keep working with them or do the same thing with another company
without that company, you might never have had the opportunity to generate that $5,000 in the first place, even if you were genuinely good at what you do
win-win
obviously, not everyone will agree to this
but trust me, your odds are much better than sending the same CV through 100 application forms
and even when it doesn’t immediately turn into a job, you’re building experience, relationships, reputation, and case studies
all of that compounds over time
move faster and smarter than everyone else
there are way fewer rules and boundaries than you think if you’re actually good and know how to create value
