> Working at a startup isn't for everyone, and there are plenty of great opportunities outside of the startup world, but not every startup is a sinking ship that's hiring new employees when it only has two weeks of cash left.
The ones with significant upside potential are. If a "startup job" is really just a normal job with normal job security and a normal paycheck, then you're never going to get the chance to strike it rich. It's just a slightly-better-than-average job.
> You should turn your auto sales analogy around because you're looking at it the wrong way.
No I think you read me the wrong way. I'm talking about you going into auto sales as a salesman, not you trying to buy a car. That's far closer to what you're doing by joining a garden-variety Silicon Valley startup.
> The ones with significant upside potential are. If a "startup job" is really just a normal job with normal job security and a normal paycheck, then you're never going to get the chance to strike it rich. It's just a slightly-better-than-average job.
Statistically few startups offer significant upside potential to rank and file employees. Period. It's not just because most of them will never have a liquidity event, or a big enough liquidity event, but because employees tend to receive so little equity and their equity is the most vulnerable.
If you look at some of the biggest startup exits in the past several years that produced the best outcomes for a large number of rank and file employees (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), you're going to find few if any that required those employees to take their chances on a sinking ship. Trust me: employee #500 at Facebook or Twitter, who received competitive salary and benefits, has done far, far better than 99% of the first 10 employees at 99% of all Silicon Valley startups.
The notion that joining a startup that's always a few weeks away from running out of cash is the only way to get "upside potential" is pure myth. It's simply not true. In fact, if you are motivated to "strike it rich", working at a startup as an employee is a horrible way to go about it. Well over half of the millionaires in this country are self-employed. You're statistically far more likely to get rich working for yourself/owning a business than working for a startup that gives you basis points in equity, or a percent or two if you're really "lucky."
> No I think you read me the wrong way. I'm talking about you going into auto sales as a salesman, not you trying to buy a car. That's far closer to what you're doing by joining a garden-variety Silicon Valley startup.
I don't know what point you're trying to make, but my point still stands: if you're contemplating a business transaction, whether it's buying a car or joining a company, you have every right to ask questions. And if you don't feel comfortable with the answers you receive (or don't receive), you proceed with said transaction at your own peril.
The ones with significant upside potential are. If a "startup job" is really just a normal job with normal job security and a normal paycheck, then you're never going to get the chance to strike it rich. It's just a slightly-better-than-average job.
> You should turn your auto sales analogy around because you're looking at it the wrong way.
No I think you read me the wrong way. I'm talking about you going into auto sales as a salesman, not you trying to buy a car. That's far closer to what you're doing by joining a garden-variety Silicon Valley startup.