[dmitrygr]

And this, boys and girls, is why you should never join a second start-up. Join one early, see how it works & learn as much as you can. Do not expect $$$ - you will not make any. Then decide if you want to start your own, or want comfortable well-paid employment at GOOG/AAPL/FB/etc

Do not expect to make money from a start-up unless you started it. If you did not start it, you are the disposable labour. Sorry.

[ap22213]

Note that the situation has evolved over the last 20 years. During the first tech wave, general employees actually made decent money when the company got sold. I know a bunch of people that walked into early retirement in the 90s.

But, in that first wave, the founders were more likely to be the ones who built the original product. Since then, there's been a dramatic shift from the inventor-run tech company to the financier-run or salesperson-run tech company. In this second generation company, there's considerably less leverage for a non-sales or non-finance employee. I've known a couple people who've gotten rich during the second wave, but none were from the creative team.

[x5n1]

If people took your advice Silicon Valley would be toast.

[dmitrygr]

Silicon valley is built on naive dreamers who time and time again expect to make money as startup employees against all rules of logic and contrary to historical data.

[cylinder]

Why don't people understand, you don't get rich without risking capital.

Yes, your time is capital. But not when you've already traded it for salary.

Brokers risk their time to try to sell speculative deals. This is why they make a chunk of the deal. No guarantee.

Lawyers get paid by the hour for their time. This is why they can earn a nice living but won't get wildly rich unless they take speculative cases on contingency.

[dmitrygr]

What did the founder risk? OtherPeoples'Money?

[matt_wulfeck]

Not sure why they're naive. Even if you don't get rich you still make very good money and get nice perks. Why must the end goal to be filthy rich?

[dmitrygr]

Most startups don't even pay enough to rent a 2br apt. Must the end goal be to be single and family-less forever? ;)

[cpncrunch]

From what I can see, the odds of getting rich through stock options at a startup are similar to winning the lottery.

[raarts]

True but this doesn't mean he's not right. 9 out of 10 startups fail. And you usually do make more money if you started it.