If you want a company that has more chances of "surviving", apply/work for a company that can generate positive cashflow from operations. Life will be more stable, your salary will reflect the company's ability to make a profit (aka "lower") but you won't get the possible upside of a "hot" startup - you can't have it both ways. Anecdotally, unless you are the first 10 in the startup, it is probably not going to be a lot of windfall for you. For pre-IPO companies, sometimes it even goes the other way (you pay taxes on earnings that may never happen)