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coconutbrainon Tell HN: I've rejected $1.4M offer to work on open-source instead

This is true!

However, there are startups around like Ghost, Matrix, who are doing all work in open-source

Also when you license under GNU, those parasites are scared off rather quickly

The truth reason more startups don't that, because they have no leverage, besides the code and/or want to protect their moat at all costs, so they can brag about "we own the IP" when investors are asking "What makes your offering uniquely possible?"

Luckily, as serial™ (co)founder i know the game well enough and never went beyond a seed-round

coconutbrainon Tell HN: I've rejected $1.4M offer to work on open-source instead

> You didn't say you were giving away a lottery ticket for open source

You call this a lottery ticket? My open-source work is the reason they were considering me in the first place!

Instead of getting opportunities, let them establish a monopoly over my time? No, thanks

> after taxes it's nowhere near retirement after 4 years

Correct, if you take the taxes into account there's more grind for what's worth

Those stock options are effectively $0, but based on the company's crazy valuation, sure they might be calculated as that much

coconutbrainon Tell HN: I've rejected $1.4M offer to work on open-source instead

Good thing those Silicon Valley Ponzi-schemes, aka. "Startups" are not the only way to make money!

coconutbrainon Tell HN: I've rejected $1.4M offer to work on open-source instead

You know the risks? What if things go south and your options are worth zero?

90% of startups fail

coconutbrainon Tell HN: I've rejected $1.4M offer to work on open-source instead

Many linux developers are employed. They're getting paid for doing open-source

coconutbrainon Tell HN: I've rejected $1.4M offer to work on open-source instead

You value money over mental health?

coconutbrainon Tell HN: I've rejected $1.4M offer to work on open-source instead

I donated at least 3 domain names to open-source projects

Don't hold on to the domains, I'd suggest donating money directly to the contributors

coconutbrainon Tell HN: I've rejected $1.4M offer to work on open-source instead

A higher than average salary + Tons of stock options

My mind is made-up and no million can change this

I'd rather die tomorrow than contribute a single line of code to a Venture-Funded startup (I know HN billionaire-wannabes would disagree)

coconutbrainon Tell HN: I've rejected $1.4M offer to work on open-source instead

I don't worry much about it. I can go back to corporate slavery any time. In fact there's massive labor shortage

Open-Source brings many more opportunities as a side-effect. Especially networking, eg. "I saw this guy on on GitHub/HackerNews, can we hire him?"

Actually, they stumbled upon my GitHub project and that's how they found out about me in the first place