"Mostly, I was growing tired of implementing <some old-school technology> to solve <some generic enterprise problem>. I’m a builder at heart, and I wanted to contribute to Creating a Thing"

Consulting offers a great balance between personal freedom, and cash flow, and that to me is one of its greatest strengths. You get the small team comraderie too, as you mentioned. With a startup, if you can build that product, yes, then a startup is ideal. But that's extremely tough.

For me, I'm willing to sacrifice a small piece of my freedom in exchange for that cash flow.