[m0zg]

Having been through this meat grinder, people do please run the numbers on that "equity" you're getting. Founders make it sound like 0.1% is a windfall, but it most certainly isn't, even in the unlikely event the startup succeeds.

That said, in my estimation people go to startups to do interesting things, not for the money per se. BigCo (even a FAANG) is a depressing, high politics, low productivity morass, and a lot of people (myself included) find it difficult to tolerate it for long, in spite of the higher paycheck.

As to running the numbers, there's an excellent essay by @luu that you need to read: https://danluu.com/startup-tradeoffs/