[BadassFractal]

Naive question: why not work for a FAANG, try to make close to half a million after enough time, promotions and jumping ship between the different firms, then just invest whatever you're not spending into the stock market or whatever other assets you choose? Take the 400k you're not spending and dump into Tesla and friends, or whatever other sexy stock du jour?

Seems like a much healthier risk profile unless you ONLY want a huge Google-like unicorn outcome as an early employee.

[owyn]

If you can, you probably should! I've come to believe that the best chances of getting a financial benefit (as opposed to just an experience benefit) from working at a startup is to be a founder. If you're "just" an engineer, it's unlikely to be worth it.

[sciencewolf]

It is much easier to get a job at a growing VC-backed startup than a FAANG.

[BadassFractal]

I suppose so. That could be one's foot in the door for a FAANG role later down the line?