Ask HN: Does it pay off to work for a startup?

2 points·chenpengcheng··4 comments

I worked for a few. Had a good run in one of them, but luck played a big part. Among the rest, hard work didn't really pay off. What is your experience?

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That depends on what one considers a real startup. I've been at three that referred to themselves as such (really four, but that one was already public when I joined).

Two tiny ones were disasters - pocket change when one IPOed and only a sense of relief escaping the other (like joining the Witness Protection Program), though some alumni went on to get rich on famous stuff. The largest was a great success, lucrative and a good education about the world - but there was a lot there before me.

Same experience with tiny startups. Worked like crazy and earned pennies.

With the wrong kind of options it's easy to get shafted with a massive tax bill depending upon what kind of options you get and how your timing is in exercising it can be a huge risk to your future if it works out poorly.

I never got into this situation, but heard people got options but they became underwater after IPO (e.g. Dropbox). There are several hot startups that had a lot of hype, but turned out just so so. I work for a VC funded startup now, but I feel there have been huge dilution, so I started asking if it is worth it. There is poor work life balance and liquidity risk. At the end, if a company goes IPO, I don't expect to make too much money. Why not get a job at a big company and enjoy life.

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