The thing is, if you were already in the crowd that gets offers to work at this sort of startup, you could be drawing the same 250k+ to work a normal 9-5 at a FAANG-adjacent

Signing on to a hookers-and-blow startup is a choice a lot of these folks made, not their only route to money

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kstrauser 24 minutes ago | parent [-]

Correction: FAANG salaries are almost always better. You get a lot more equity with startups. It’s a gamble. You’re betting a short term paycut on the company’s success.

But the main reason I’d generally work at startups anyway is because it’s more fun. When something needs to be done, you can’t contact the department that does the thing. You are that department; go figure it out!

And yes, that’s also a lot more pressure, but I wouldn’t trade it for a 9-5 desk job. (Other people absolutely would, and do. I never criticize their decision making. That’s what’s right for them. It’s just not what’s right for me.)

	▲	swiftcoder 11 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		> You get a lot more equity with startups. It’s a gamble. You’re betting a short term paycut on the company’s success. Well, one used to get more equity. And maybe the first couple of people through the door still get more equity. If you are engineer #5 or later at a startup today, I'm willing to bet the 5-year upside on a FAANG comp package is on par or higher with a decent startup exit...