Confessions of a serial startup software developer
Take it with a grain of salt as I&#x27;m someone who only worked at startups my whole career (~10 years), but I had a very different experience over the years, and it saddens me to see this kind of content on HN.<p>I love small companies, I love the chaos, I love having that bond around some crazy idea that might never work. I love being in the know about how things work and why people buy our product and things like that.<p>&gt; You’ll Work Hard Instead of Smart<p>There&#x27;s this idea that you&#x27;re overworked and under constant stress when you work at startups, and I genuinely don&#x27;t understand what people are talking about. I would say don&#x27;t work for people that want you to work hard and not smart, regardless of it being a startup or not. Don&#x27;t let shitty bosses force you to work when you don&#x27;t want to (e.g weekends). As someone who knows how to code you almost always have leverage here.<p>&gt; Your Equity Is Worth Nothing<p>It&#x27;s not nothing. Sure, it&#x27;s risky, but people do make money. Do it long enough and you&#x27;ll get lucky (maybe). And quit shitty startups quickly so that you don&#x27;t waste your time.<p>RE expected value, I think it&#x27;s funny that when people do these calculations it&#x27;s always all startups vs top 5 tech firms. Why not compare it to YC startups for example? If 1 out of 250 ends up being a $100B company, 0.25% of equity you earn per year is $1M in cash. Try to beat that working at Facebook.<p>&gt; You’re Giving Up Mentorship<p>It is true that startups are generally less prepared to mentor you. Personally, I believe that mentorship is overrated, but I could see how this is important for some people, especially early on in their careers.