[sm0ss117]

You don't work at a startup to make more money, you work at a startup for non-monetary benefits and if you're extremely lucky you might get rich quick. Average case is you make less, good case is you make even if your company is highly successful.

[hash872]

Without pointing any specific fingers, people were pushing 'you should spend your 20s working 60-80 hours a week at a startup so you can get rich' really hard for a while there. It's only relatively recently that this is understood to be a bit of a con

[TuringNYC]

>> It's only relatively recently that this is understood to be a bit of a con

This go-around, there is a lot of private capital, so companies stay private for a decade or longer and lock employees out of liquidity events (meanwhile, founders can negotiate to take some cash off the table during a financing round.) The incentives are skewed. In the 90s bubble, companies with a $50M valuations could go IPO -- you could hopefully sell after your lockout. (Oh, and houses cost a tenth of what they do now.)

This go-around, there is HN, Quora, Blind, and so it is harder for people to get suckered into starry visions.

That said, it is still worth considering working at startups for the high-learning, low-BS environments you can find as compared to big companies.