| For context, I am speaking from the viewpoint of a 48 year old guy who first fell into BigTech two years ago by doing a slight pivot from software development at unremarkable companies into cloud consulting. So for me personally, I don’t have time to risk on startups when I can be certain that my RSUs will be worth something when they vest and I can sell them and diversify. Even if they are down 25% year to date. On the other hand, I mentored an intern last year, who got a return offer of $150K and can live anywhere in the US - right now he is staying at home rent free. This already puts him in the top 10% of income earners in the US. In three years, he can be making $250k- $275K. Three years after that, he can be making close to $400K-$500K. But he will need to switch from an IC if he doesn’t want to switch from consulting. Because of the time value of money, it makes much more sense to make as much money as possible while he is younger and avoid startups like the plague unless they can offer as much in cash as he is getting in cash+RSUs. You are looking at things from the founders side. I am looking at things from the employee’s end. It’s your company. You should be passionate it about. From our end it’s a job. As far as finding “product market fit”, how often has a company found product market fit, and a larger more profitable company came in, put a department on duplicating the effort and crushed the upstart? We saw it in the 90s with Microsoft and we see it today with Facebook. Even Netflix isn’t immune. It’s being outcompeted by Warner Bros and Disney. Everyone likes to point to Apple and Amazon. But they are the exception not the rule. |