Ask HN: If your startup fails, can you be an employee at another company?

My last co-founder kinda soured badly on steady corporate world. I plucked him from Yahoo (before Marissa) and did a startup for a couple of years. When we closed shop, he tried to go back to the corporate world (Disney/BigCommerce) and found them unsufferable. He got used to small, do whatever I want to do. He ended up at another startup, a little bigger, but still under 40 people. So, moral of the story is that some people won't go back to big corporate behemoths after doing a startup.

If you are a dev/eng/cs guy you'll land fast anywhere, non-dev startup work (marketing/PR/social/sales/support/fundraising) will require a lot of explaining and time. You'll get there.

"Failed" startup founder here.

For me, it's just a matter of what's more cost efficient. Statistically it's easier to get a job than funding. Very little of funding ends up in founders' pockets anyway.

Salaries and openings for developers have gone way up lately. Entrepreneurs need to chase the best opportunity and timing.

Also inevitably, you come across competition. Ideally you become best friends with your competitors. Because statistically, fail rate is high.

The best employee is very often someone who can build/sell something very effectively. The best employer is someone who views you as an equal, works on your vision, and admires your strengths. So competitors are often a perfect match.

To add on to what celticninja said, it's not just that it can be done, but is in fact quite common. Experience from running a startup can be a positive even if the company failed. Do you have a more specific question or any other information?

Yes. Providing information as to why you think this is not possible may widen the scope of the discussion.

Absolutely. The hardest part is actually just re-adjusting to a non-startup workstyle. Like rejoining a 5K employee office from a 4-person startup comes with changes in workstyles, management, etc.

OP here. It was more a philosophical question rather than to be taken literally.

Not only yes, but for certain types of company it considered a benefit.

Of course. Happens everyday