[vtange]

But you could arguably get the same result working for a larger company, getting paid market rate for a 9-to-5, and putting in a few more hours at home working on open source or managing a solo side project from scratch.

You might even end up with a side project that earns you passive income in the end if you're lucky, but you had to be lucky to get a "break-even" payout from startup-life anyways as you have said.

[kelnos]

I don't agree that an open source project an stand in for the specific type of experience you can get working at a startup.

Source: while taking a stint in engineering project/product management, I was a core developer on a popular open source project for 5 years.