Don’t forget dilution! I started with 1.X% pre Series A at a successful startup that is now valued at more than $1B, and my slice of the pie is down to roughly 0.2%, while the damn thing is still private after 10+ years and many, many diluting investment rounds. If I am lucky and the startup sells at some point, my annualized income will have been roughly $1M/y. So, it takes way more than $500M to break even! Each and every round of investment will dilute you of 15-20%+.

I am now at a FAANG with similar comp to yours, and if someone offers me a job at an early startup I will laugh in their face. For me the future choices will either be my own startup, or a pre-IPO (within a year) company. This will continue to be true even after I’ll reach financial independence, because once you go through an early startup as employee you realize you are taking exactly the same risk of the founders but orders of magnitude less potential rewards. It’s just for suckers, no other ways to put it. And I really enjoy working in small startups, so it’s sad that this is the reality.

And keep in mind my experience with the startup was extremely lucky, since it is a unicorn now. I feel like I did beat all the odds, and even then it will likely not match what I could have made in FAANG all along, with better benefits (401k anyone?) and working hours. I made peace with it, but it tormented me for quite a while.