[Mnexium]

Not in big tech, but comfortable 250k in mid-teir expense remote suburb. The opportunity cost is real and something to truly be factored in. Something I can probably replace after this endeavor but it would require a lifestyle change (moving etc).

I think i'd be happy with the challenge of building a business if there was constant progress and the end of the tunnel was possible (not necessarily guaranteed, but not 0% either).

I think being acquihired by mid-level would be a success. If my path is posting clueless HN to being acquihired in 3-5 - i'd personally love that outcome and it would validate a lot of things (my ability to acheive this, idea validation etc).

Chops question is difficult to answer - with constant progress I have tons of internal motivation, but one "no" and I tend to feel like shit (a character flaw for this line of work imo).

[VirusNewbie]

So just a couple anecdotes of friends of mine who have been in the industry a while:

1 Friend, started a consulting company, worked his absolute ass off, made many millions, but also maybe not a lot more than if he had worked his ass off in big tech and climbed the ranks.

Another friend started a product company, raised a seed round, worked on it for many many years paying himself peanuts, eventually had to take a job at a big tech company for a few years and his side business was part time, then quit big tech to focus on it again, acquihired after 8 years. Now he gets to work on his project and get paid a decent amount by some mid tier tech company, so he's happy.

Financially, not the optimal move, but he loves working on his own ideas, and I think he's happy about that.

[Mnexium]

Very relevant, I think a lot of stuff in tech is romanticized, even things like doing a start up or getting into YC. We hear about the massive successes that the normal/median kind of disappears and is ignored.

I think from an odds perspective, one of the above is probably the highest likely hood if I leave w2.

[VirusNewbie]

Let me give more detail. Friend #1 is top tier engineering brain (including all the people I've worked with at Google) and extroverted. He probably made 10M+ selling his company (He never told me the number but he has a huge house in a gated community and drives fancy cars, he's rich).

But it took him 10 years and he probably had the chops to get to director/VP level at big tech if he would have grinded on that path.

He's not hurting for money - he lives quite a bit nicer lifestyle than an average FAANG engineer but his ceiling was high on either W2 or starting his own thing. He could definitely retire but now he's just back at it after some time off for the love of the game. He's a grinder by nature.

The other friend is a solid engineer but not top tier, doesn't love the business side of things. So getting acqui-hired into a decent paying job (probably 300k) working remote on his project that got open sourced is probably his dream.

I mean, i'm sure he would have loved to make many millions instead of a tiny acquihire, but he is much happier not having to deal with business stuff. This is a much more realistic view of 'success' than the outlier success storeis you hear on hacker news.

*My advice*

I would find a business partner if you don't love that side of things. Work on this part time, get some seed money, and if you can get a couple PAYING customers part time, then go for it - if you're ok with the more likely outcome of not becoming uber rich.

[Mnexium]

There for sure is something to be said about higher performers being high performers wherever/whatever role they're into. There is a large degree of luck but an even bigger degree of execution involved.

Part of the dilemma is would I be as successful financially if I went all in on W2 as well.

For me, I'd aim to be buddy#1 but I probably fall more inline with buddy#2.

I think the business partner advice makes sense and something I am considering. It is better to own 10% of 10M then 100% of 100K, but also just complimenting skill sets as well.

appreciate it