You may do many things but be aware that what you do may not add value to grow you as a professional. You may learn many things but be aware that you may not be learning the right or best practice way of doing things, some may even be borderline illegal.
It's better to join as an experienced hire than a fresh graduate where you contribute to grow the company which gives a sense of achievement. Unfortunately due to the low bar of entry for those who join in the 1-2 years of the startup, many of these folks were too quickly promoted before acquiring sufficient experience, maturity or developed appropriate managerial behaviors. This results in frustration by experienced lateral hires who later join the coy and report into them - the funny thing is the lateral hires are often more skilled, more experienced, better mannered and cost lesser than these managers whom they have to report into, and can do the job of the middle-managers and much better too.
The inexperienced middle managers remain in the coy simply because they have been with the coy during the startup years, however top management needs to realize this mentality cannot be allowed any longer if they want to let the coy grow. These middle managers value to the coy is actually diminishing as the company transforms to a larger setup where profiles with better background and experience are needed to take the coy to the next stage. Some of these middle managers get very arrogant because they have become 'untouchables' due to the immunity given to them by top management, consciously or unconsciously.
The result is talented experience staff leave and the coy is stuck in a vicious cycle of hiring lower quality talents that can be 'subdued' by the arrogant inexperienced middle managers as they fear hiring people who are better than them.
