[derefr]

> where I can work with and learn from smart people

People always say this, but in every startup I've joined, I've ended up being the most experienced tech person on the team. Never really ended up learning anything (in my field) that I didn't just teach myself on my off-hours.

Now, I've learned quite a bit about business from working for startups—with just as many "don'ts" as "do"s—but that hasn't helped me become better in the ways I was looking to become better. If I wanted to start a company, I'd be much more ready—but if I just want to code something, I'm no more ready than if I had just spent the last five years working on my own hobby projects.

[throwaway12309]

Heh, same as me.

For all this talk about SV talent, and startups being filled with smart people, from experience, it's crap. I've been consulting with various SV startups recently and between crappy code and more crappy code, I've learned a lot more working for 'big bad companies' than startups