[morfizm]

I don't think joining a startup is a very economical decision as opposed to joining a big company. Startups usually give stock options enough for some equivalent of early retirement after 5 years if there's a successful exit, but the chance is low. Last time I tried to do calc on expected income, corporations were winning.

From my friends I know only one person who went to startup with the idea to (hopefully) make good money after careful risk/reward evaluation. Most people go to a startup for non-material reasons - like do more things with your own hands, more lively/friendly environment, different learning opportunities, flexbility to change roles, etc, etc.

RE working weeks. I haven't worked in a startup myself, but friends told me that generally there's an expectation of hardwork and long hours.

The important part - an expectation of long hours doesn't mean they will necessarily fire someone who works 8 hours per day, but it means you'll likely get medium rewards and medium respect from peers if you used to be top performer in a larger company. Which may be fine.

The fact that the author quit due to long hours after he got performance award indicates a potential for flexibility: e.g. maybe he could work less, say no to some requests or fail on some deadlines, and not get award, but still be good enough to not get fired and get interesting projects.