I agree with a lot of the sentiment in this blog. There are however exceptions. Some small companies get some guy in charge who was previously mired in the bureaucracy somewhere and starts trying to impose that on the little company. Disaster ensues.
On the other end, you can get a good startup feel by finding a good team in a big company/institution (usually you see this in Academia, but some places in companies have this too). A well built group will have some admin staff (secretaries, hands off project managers, etc.) to insulate the core team from the crazy. When done well, this admin group will fill out the crap forms, hide various money absurdities, deflect outside poisoners and otherwise do amazing things to keep the non-admin folks blissfully ignorant.[1] The bosses in such a group will create or emulate a flat reporting structure, and not let the external politics apply too much pressure or influence to the team. The core team will then get to do their thing in a way that feels very much like a small company or startup.
There are benefits and drawbacks to this of course. Benefits include having a giant name behind you, and the awesome funding and legal resources available -- I was once told "you think you need a cluster... we can buy one, just make sure first". Awesome. Customers say "Oh $BIG_NAME no need to jump you through these sill hoops to prove yourself". And of course, the feeling of stability provided by being in the employ of a giant. On the drawback side: you do more work than a lot of your peers outside the group -- not a big deal but sometimes mentally taxing. Politics can creep in, so you need to maintain high productivity and always do a good job, so the bosses can preserve the group by selling it as "ninja rockstar team alpha" to everyone else. And no matter how good the shielding, sometimes the crazy still can creep in.
So basically, this is a long winded way of saying: if you are careful, you may be able to find the startup feel in a big company, or at least the good parts of it.
[1] I'm fully convinced that good admin staff are worth the same as good programmers in this type of situation. In my current employment I travel a lot, but have never filled out an expense report, I dump some receipts with the admin, answer a few questions, and she takes care of the rest of the voodoo. Similarly with the HR rep for insurance we have. Purchases are a simple "hey I need, can you charge it to...". I know there are forms and procedures -- I've heard horror stories. When we need a new person we tend to churn a bit til we find a good one, then it's a quick raise and lots of flattery to keep him/her around. (On a personal side it's always good to be very nice and friendly to these folks, they do magic :) ).
On the other end, you can get a good startup feel by finding a good team in a big company/institution (usually you see this in Academia, but some places in companies have this too). A well built group will have some admin staff (secretaries, hands off project managers, etc.) to insulate the core team from the crazy. When done well, this admin group will fill out the crap forms, hide various money absurdities, deflect outside poisoners and otherwise do amazing things to keep the non-admin folks blissfully ignorant.[1] The bosses in such a group will create or emulate a flat reporting structure, and not let the external politics apply too much pressure or influence to the team. The core team will then get to do their thing in a way that feels very much like a small company or startup.
There are benefits and drawbacks to this of course. Benefits include having a giant name behind you, and the awesome funding and legal resources available -- I was once told "you think you need a cluster... we can buy one, just make sure first". Awesome. Customers say "Oh $BIG_NAME no need to jump you through these sill hoops to prove yourself". And of course, the feeling of stability provided by being in the employ of a giant. On the drawback side: you do more work than a lot of your peers outside the group -- not a big deal but sometimes mentally taxing. Politics can creep in, so you need to maintain high productivity and always do a good job, so the bosses can preserve the group by selling it as "ninja rockstar team alpha" to everyone else. And no matter how good the shielding, sometimes the crazy still can creep in.
So basically, this is a long winded way of saying: if you are careful, you may be able to find the startup feel in a big company, or at least the good parts of it.
[1] I'm fully convinced that good admin staff are worth the same as good programmers in this type of situation. In my current employment I travel a lot, but have never filled out an expense report, I dump some receipts with the admin, answer a few questions, and she takes care of the rest of the voodoo. Similarly with the HR rep for insurance we have. Purchases are a simple "hey I need, can you charge it to...". I know there are forms and procedures -- I've heard horror stories. When we need a new person we tend to churn a bit til we find a good one, then it's a quick raise and lots of flattery to keep him/her around. (On a personal side it's always good to be very nice and friendly to these folks, they do magic :) ).