Meta: Reading this thread is a refreshing change from the other ongoing thread about Good Inc which is full of bitter diatribes about how horrible startups are for everybody. I&#x27;ve been working in startups pretty much all my working life and now am a founder of one. Some were successful some were not. The successes added non-life changing but still non-trivial amount of cushion to my bank account that allowed me to leave my full time job and work on my own startup while taking minimal cash compensation from the company funds.<p>The fact is, the time I spent in a non-startup was nowhere near as exciting and fun as the years I spent in various startups, even the failed ones. And the successful ones were   lucrative enough for me (none of which I was even in the first 50 employees) to affect some life decisions. Just one person&#x27;s anecdata here but I started my engineering career 15 years ago and I read the overly cynical, bitter postings with a sense of amazement. My experience doesn&#x27;t support any of it.