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Comment by waynep | Hacker News Reader

I see his last point here:

  He’s buying a work environment that is comparatively bullshit-free. Little bureaucracy, few meetings, flexible work schedule/environment, etc. If you’ve ever had an environment like this, you know how addictive it is and how elusive it is in larger companies.

... as the most important.

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Pre series-A this usually is the case, but post series-A there can be a lot of bullshit, especially if there is actual or perceived pressure to hire quickly.

...plus 10-12 hour workdays.

Time is part of the investment.

Then the article's numbers are off, and he should have halved the projected salary.

That's where the math comes in. I can't think of a single startup, however, that actually pay half the salary of what a person could earn at BigCo... Mostly because most engineers are savvy enough to know what a rotten deal this is (unless the equity position is dramatically bigger).

...plenty of 'established' companies have developers working 10-12 hour workdays.

...with bonuses, promotion, more holidays, better health benefit (you and your family need this).

I'll agree with everything but promotion.

That's not always true. It depends on the maturity of the startup's product but I don't believe (and RescueTime supports this) you can really expect to see long term productivity gains from employees when you require them to work well over 40 hour weeks.

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