If you want a big payout, you're much better off working for Google for a couple years to build experience and a reputation, quitting and founding a startup, and then getting reacquired by Google in a $5-20M talent acquisition.
Most people I know at Google are there because they want to work on interesting technical problems without dealing with all the bullshit that comes from running your own business. Google is still very, very effective at that - quite possibly the best place in the world for an engineer that wants to do cool stuff, launch to millions of people, and not push their way through lots of hassles.
For instance, getting the big Android founder's award probably beat being the 10th employee at Aardvark.
When I look at the dollar amount of some of the largest-ever Founders Awards and then see how many people they're split between, I can't imagine that the payout is anywhere close to even an employee's payout for an acquisition. I dunno how the Founders Awards are divided up, but I'd imagine that it's a skew distribution, with most of it going to the initiators and key early team members of the project. Some of these teams have hundreds of employees; I really doubt that someone who joined six months before the Founders Award makes off with any more than a "Hey, that's a nifty bonus" amount.
Google can and does hand out big bonuses. There's so much cash flowing through the company that a little sprinkle of it (by Google's standards) is still a lot of money. If you're one of the fast-tracked folks at Google, there is no reason to join a startup just for the money.