As an early startup employee, I'm working for (all things considered) less money than I was when I was working in the defense industry. But I also don't loathe my job or lay awake at night, stressed about the idiocy and bureaucracy that made my days hellish, Kafkaesque, comedic nightmares.
That's worth more a LOT more than ~$10k/year and a guaranteed 'career'.
There's nothing about a pre-funded startup that magically banishes the "kafkaesque". Conversely, there's nothing about being well-funded that keeps you from sleeping at night (quite the opposite, actually).
I'm not saying that 'all startups good, all big company bad' is some sort of globally applicable law and I'm not sure how or why anyone would read that into what I've said.
True in California.
Not so much in other places. In India, you can work for body shopper process heavy companies (Wipro Infosys etc) , "India dev center" s of MegaCorps, which are universally severely dysfunctional and bureaucratic (Even Google and Yahoo aren't immune, their Indian operations are overrun by Middle Management and by and large, you get (relatively) crappy work (ops/legacy code etc)). Or you can work for the very few decent startups at below-market rates.
Choices, choices ;-)
Not so much opposing your view point as qualifying it a bit.
PS: If anyone knows of an Indian company that pays well, has great work, and is not infested by bureaucracy, let us know. I have friends who are looking to move from both Kafkaesque BigCo jobs and underpaid startup jobs.
I'd guess you're at an established startup if you're only making ~$10k/year less than your last job in the defense industry. Pre-Series A startups are unlikely to pay even a third of what you'd make in that industry.
A pre series a eng is making 30 to 60 if lucky. At series a, maybe 80 to 100.
Defense is almost a perpetual job, whereas the half life of a pre series a startup is maybe 3 months, 1 yr for series a.
(apologies for formatting, on iPad)
80 to 100 is much closer to what a software engineer with several years of experience makes working for a defense contractor than 250, though of course actual years of experience and how well one has played the corporate ladder game can make a big impact.
Past a certain point it is relatively difficult to advance salary-wise without taking on management roles and giving up the hands-dirty side of programming / engineering. Once you're there it's an apples-to-oranges comparison for the kind of startups that are typical for HN-types ~ certainly no early stage startup is going to hire a 10-year manager to be employee #1 when what they really need is a hotshot programmer.
Substitute working for a fund on the dev side and double my numbers to make the original argument stronger.