[heurist]

They are stingy with equity because it's easy to make a bad hire and then be unable to fix the cap table. I do think there should be a better balance, though, and agree that they can be quite stingy even with those who turn out to be good hires.

I feel being first engineer at a startup gave me the skills to found my own company and make a living on my own terms, which is ultimately what I want from life. Being super rich isn't too important to me as long as I feel I have broken out of the mold and am on a path to greater personal and creative freedom. I honestly wanted to kill myself after a few years at a well-liked, growing 1000 person company. It was too confining and I was too distant from the real world. I can't imagine ever being happy at a FAANG Corp, even if the work is initially interesting. The weight of layers of managers above always becomes unbearably heavy for me, especially since I naturally struggle against authority.

[ummonk]

Well, while large companies are moving towards immediate vesting, startups continue to have 1 year vesting cliffs, so they have plenty of time to fix the cap table after a bad hire.