- There is a 90% chance the company will fail and you will end up working harder than you ever have for less money and with a less marketable resume.  Even though you say that being a &quot;professional software engineer&quot; doesn&#x27;t matter to you, you&#x27;re more marketable coming from stable big-corp for product manager, data scientist, engineering manager, TPM, director of engineering etc. etc. roles than some guy from a startup nobody has heard of.<p>- Even if this company is insanely successful, most likely you are going to make peanuts.  I have worked at two startups as a relatively early employee, one acquired for XX M and another for XXX M.  In both cases, the money I would have made&#x2F;made was hardly life changing.  There is a 99% chance that this is a bad economic decision.<p>- Even if this company is insanely, insanely successful, the founders are going to be flying in private jets, and you&#x27;ll have a down payment on a house in Palo Alto.<p>- The only reason to join a startup as an early employee is the learning experience.  You will learn more than you can imagine.  You are going to work really really hard, and it is going to push you to your limit.  You won&#x27;t be the same person on the other side.  It will have some incredible highs and some incredible lows.