Don't work for a startup with a low average tenure. 

If the company is 5 years old but average tenure is less than 2 years...

Something is wrong:

-they're bad at hiring
-they're bad at planning
-they're bad at executing
-their product is crap

This is a metric startup founders never talk about. 

Most of them don't even measure it, so how could they manage it?

Why work for someone who doesn't care how long you'll work for them?

Next time you take an interview, ask how old the company is and what their average tenure is.

If they have no clue how to answer the question they aren't the least bit concerned with the success of the people they hire. 

Don't blame the company for poor employment outcomes if you don't ask the right questions.

These decisions are ultimately on you. 

Employers play offense so it's your job to play defense. 

It makes sense to take recent hiring sprints into consideration. For example if the company is 5 years old with average tenure under 2 years but they recently went through a growth period hiring more than 50% of their total team, then of course you need to factor that into your math. 

That said, you need to trust your gut more than the data they provide because startups, like all businesses, are excellent at producing data that tells an admirable story... in other words, they may be completely full of crap. 

For these reasons, it's best to not only ask these questions to the hiring manager, but also to current and former employees to see if their estimates align with the data provided by the hiring manager. 

This should be how you address all important questions, don't just take one acceptable answer, you need to validate it through multiple sources and most importantly trust your gut.

You've been warned.

Happy Selling,