&gt; Thanks for the comment, but &#x27;investing&#x27; 100k, a sum FAR more than almost anyone reading the comment will ever see in their own bank accounts, is not &#x27;investing&#x27; for most of us.<p>To the extent that is true, neither is taking a salary hit on that order in exchange for equity from your employer.<p>The contention GP makes is that <i>even ignoring</i> the opportunity for diversified investing, from a financial standpoint, getting a job with an established company is <i>strictly</i> better than a startup in most cases, since you can exceed the pay and equity (and equity <i>in the startup</i>) of the startup job with the bigco job.<p>That the bigco job <i>also</i> gives you the option of diversifying your equity investments to manage risk, while the startup job does not, reinforces, rather than counters, that argument.