The "risk" that this article talks about was actually a bonus in my mind. It meant that, more often than not, the whole company would suddenly evaporate out from under you at some point and you'd find yourself out on the job market again. Since this is an industry where Changing Jobs == Big Fat Raise, having a chance to do so with a perfectly valid excuse ("we rode our $4M straight into the ground, so here I am") was a definite upside.
Not to mention that finding yourself on the street after 6 months coding non-stop while living on somebody's couch will invariably leave a fella with a nice stack of cash. The sort of cash that goes a long way if one were to squeeze in a quick nine month trip to SE Asia before hopping back aboard the next startup for another fun, fast trip into the side of the mountain.
If you're young, unburdened, and looking to get exposed to a lot of cool tech in a short time (and still get paid for it), joining somebody else's startup is totally the way to go.