And I do recognize that it's just that - a lottery. We could fail and I end up unemployed with nothing. Or a funding round could dilute my stock options to worthlessness.
It does not make any sense to suffer through 5+ years of unsatisfying job with (relatively) low pay, just to have a very small (<5%) chance to make enough money to retire. This chance is actually much smaller if you own less than 5% of the company (i.e. not a founder or C-level).
Source: worked for 7 startups in the last 20 years.
My base salary is actually above market by a decent margin.
Total compensation is a little lower than market if you assume the options are worthless. But if we get to a $5B valuation, the value of my options would put me to a significantly over-market compensation, though not enough to retire. If we reached $30B, then that would give me ~$6M assuming no dilution.
One of the startups I used to work for in the past had 3 rounds, ~180M total, shut down 2 months ago. Investors lost almost all of their money, founders got nothing. I lost 20k I paid for my vested shares.
And I do recognize that it's just that - a lottery. We could fail and I end up unemployed with nothing. Or a funding round could dilute my stock options to worthlessness.