Working for a startup makes less sense, unless you are into the mission
This is knitpicky, because OP&#x27;s point may still stand, but as a founder, this is what comes to mind after reading this: When I hear &quot;work for a startup&quot;, I don&#x27;t assume that means &quot;be the 10th engineer at a company&quot;. You might make some money at that point, but you&#x27;re not going to get financial independence unless there&#x27;s a billion dollar IPO.<p>By BigCo standards, 10 engineers is a tiny startup. By venture&#x2F;founder standards, I think 10 engineers is when you&#x27;ve already made it past the riskiest parts. You probably already have significant revenue traction, or you&#x27;re past a Series A. You should be able to pay market, and equity is about alignment not risk compensation.<p>I think you can still get rich at a startup, but you need to take actual risk to be compensated for it. Join a 5 person company. Be the second or third engineer, and be able to become the CTO if the two technical people ahead of you leave.