Jobs in a fintech start-up can be hard. But don't leave too soon

The fintech industry isn't an easy place to work, and many who go there don't stay long. Leaving a company within four years seems the norm. If you're joining fintech for the pay, that can be a huge problem.

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Different roles are more prone to churn. Michael Abdul, director of fintech recruitment firm Volition, says "software engineers are always more likely to have solid tenures," but salespeople are much more susceptible to leaving. 

Abdul says sales staff in fintechs often either "leave because the product wasn't as good as they thought," or that the fintech will "fire well-paid salespeople for not hitting numbers." The problem is that fintechs need salespeople who are "actually technical and understand the product." Abdul says, in his specialism of capital markets infrastructure fintechs, "the percentage of people who leave is lower."

Why do so many fintech employees leave quickly? Michael Shlayen, founder of Blockchain Headhunter, says that the crypto industry in particular is "extremely volatile" and "anything but laid back." He says larger players like Coinbase are starting to organize themselves more like their TradFi counterparts, presenting a comparatively safe option to crypto startups.

Abdul says you have to be a "doer" in fintech, prioritizing execution over strategy and remembering "everything is about sales." Many who join fintech underestimate this. He says one placement joined a startup from incumbent financial technology firm FIS but returned to his old employer within 18 months: "the honest answer for his return was that FIS was just an easier life!"

When you leave soon, you won't benefit from the equity. Peter Walker, head of insights at cap table infrastructure fintech Carta, says equity structure in startups is "almost always a 4-year grant with a 1-year cliff." If you end up leaving your startup before that four-year period and still want the stock, you'll have to pay a large bulk sum that you may not be able to afford, or forgo it entirely.

Walker says many have been in that position. He recently released data for over 300k employees at startups using Carta; The data, which isn't fintech specific, showed that more than 50% of employees who joined a startup in 2019 and 2020, respectively, have already left the company they joined. More than 64% of employees who joined between 2016 and 2018 have disappeared.

There are exceptions in fintech, but these are often the major firms which have escaped 'startup status'. Coinbase offers a seven-year window for departing employees who exercise options; the most common window is just 90 days. Revolut offers three separate vesting schedules, including a two-year option where 1/24 of the stock vests each month.

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