[mechanical_fish]

Working at someone else's startup is a recipe for getting exploited - overworked and underpaid.

Isn't working at anybody's startup a recipe for being overworked and underpaid?

Nice things about working for someone else's startup for a while: (a) you're not as overworked or underpaid as they are [1]; (b) you have less of your ego invested so you might sleep better; (c) you'll learn to see the world from the startup perspective; (d) you get a taste of the startup lifestyle, which will help you know if you're cut out for it; (e) you'll meet a bunch of other people who enjoy startups -- which is to say, people who are willing to be overworked and underpaid in exchange for some ineffable quality in their working life. Those people can be hard to find once you are out of school. You want to meet them, because if you have your own startup someday you'll need to know who and where they are.

(When you are in school, of course, you are always being overworked and underpaid. That's a big reason why startups are always on the hunt for new graduates: They're completely inured to the lifestyle.)

And, yes, if you've got the personality for it you can bootstrap a startup in a small amount of spare time while working in your corporate environment. But not everyone enjoys that, and there are many kinds of startup that can't really be done that way.

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[1] If you're working as hard as the founders and getting the same compensation then you are a founder. If you're getting less equity than a founder they had better make up a lot of the difference with cash. If you're working for lousy equity and no cash... yes, you're being exploited. I guess you could argue that the problem with startups is that they have a pronounced tendency to try to lure you into accepting lousy equity and lousy cash, but that can happen at any job.

[rick888]

"Nice things about working for someone else's startup for a while: (a) you're not as overworked or underpaid as they are [1]; (b) you have less of your ego invested so you might sleep better; (c) you'll learn to see the world from the startup perspective; (d) you get a taste of the startup lifestyle, which will help you know if you're cut out for it; (e) you'll meet a bunch of other people who enjoy startups"

If you have your own startup, you can do all of these..except in the end, if the company gets bought out or it really takes off, you will get more than a sliver of the pie.

All startups in my area have horrible pay+small equity in the company. The problem I have is that someone else is making all of the final decisions. After 2 years, they could run the company into the ground and I will get nothing out of it except experience, which I can get in many other fulfilling ways. If I'm going to be forced to live a frugal life, it will be because of my own startup.

[lkrubner]

You write:

"After 2 years, they could run the company into the ground and I will get nothing out of it except experience"

I can relate to some of the frustration you express. I spent most of 6 years working with the entrepreneur behind Bluewall (http://www.bluewallmedia.com/). I worked there 2002-2008 (on and off). We occasionally built some projects that seemed to do well, initially, and which possibly would have grown if the business had had some focus and discipline and follow-up. (We built a decent video store for the yoga site http://www.ihanuman.com/store.php and we could have used the same software to build out a whole network of similar niche/community focused video sites.)

I saw a lot of projects abandoned, some of which seemed to have big potential. It was frustrating to watch as $2 million dollars were wasted on what seemed like a long series of bad decisions.

However, I can not fully agree with this part of what you write:

"I will get nothing out of it except experience, which I can get in many other fulfilling ways."

Strictly speaking, your statement is true, there are many other things you can do, all of which will bring you experiences. However, startup experiences are unique and not easily fungible for other experiences. The question then, simply, is whether you want startup experiences. If not, then you probably should not be working at startups at all, even if the pay was great. But if yes, then I think you'll walk away with experiences that will seem very valuable to you, and worth the opportunity cost.

[rick888]

"Strictly speaking, your statement is true, there are many other things you can do, all of which will bring you experiences. However, startup experiences are unique and not easily fungible for other experiences. The question then, simply, is whether you want startup experiences. If not, then you probably should not be working at startups at all, even if the pay was great. But if yes, then I think you'll walk away with experiences that will seem very valuable to you, and worth the opportunity cost."

The other way to get startup experience is to start one yourself. You get the experience running a startup and the risk/reward ratio is much better.

[lkrubner]

Assuming you have the money to do it, then sure, but you are risking your own money. We all start out making mistakes, and if you can learn important things while someone else pays all the bills, then you are better off in the end.