[jgelsey]

Actually, my observation over the last 20 years of being a venture investor, bigco acquirer and startup CEO (including at a unicorn) is that the risk-adjusted $ compensation is the same at a startup and at bigco. Startups just have more beta in the comp. You learn a lot more at a startup and hence it's the experience you want if you hope to do your own startup. If you just care about short-term $ then absolutely stay at bigco. If you want experiences unavailable at bigcos and are willing to take the chance of making less, but also the chance of making 10X+ more, do startups.

[senordevnyc]

Show your work, because I flat out do not believe you. Just the fact that you were investing in these startups, acquiring them, and working as a CEO at a unicorn indicates that you have a vastly skewed perception of the typical startup.

[peripitea]

>The risk-adjusted $ compensation is the same at a startup and at bigco. Startups just have more beta in the comp.

I work with startups, and while this may have been true 10-20 years ago I can't imagine how you would think it's true now. As the sibling comment says, I'd love to see your work, i.e. a remotely plausible example case with numbers illustrating how startup EV would approach bigco EV.