Airbnb Pros: - Great Manager and team - Comfortable with the job, lots of domain knowledge - Good WLB & completely remote Airbnb Cons: - Promo path is super hard - Afraid that I’m stagnating in my career Mid Size Startup Pros: - Potential for high IPO payout in 2-3 years - Get to work on something new - Startup is profitable with a ARR of over 200m (Layoffs unlikely) Mid Size Startup Cons: - 2 days a week in office - Uncertain about how the team and manager is gonna be - Overvalued (Over 10b) and in a very competitive space against titans in the market Personal Life: My wife is also a high earner (400k+), no kids, this makes me wonder if I should be open to taking on more risk
Looks like the startup only pays half of AirBnB. Paper money is usually worthless.
I don’t think it’s worthless , maybe I would discount it by 50%.
Way, WAY fewer than 50% of startups IPO. Even fewer IPO favorably for the engineers. If you want, do the math yourself. I imagine it’s less than 5%.
What does your wife do
Wife's degree?
SWE at big tech
Dude just stay put where you at. Startup that too in this climate is definite no. But upto you ofcourse.
That’s also a concern
Don't stagnate. I was addicted to complacency for like a decade and I kick myself now.
I would just go for what would would enjoy more. One sounds like a lot of fun but a lot of work and the other is chilllll but maybe boring.
Ya I don’t know what I enjoy more. Sometimes I feel like I should earn more and progress in career, other times I just wanna rest and vest. I’m confused
Is the startup offering options or RSUs?
RSUs
If I am you, I will pick Airbnb as I am lazy. I would suggest taking the startup opportunity if you don't have visa issue.
If you were genuinely excited about the startup, would you have posted this thread? I agree that stagnation is a problem at Airbnb. Have you considered transferring to a different team? Don’t be seduced by the staff title at the startup. Nobody takes startup titles seriously. If the title is really appealing to you, try a company with a lower staff bar than ours, such as LinkedIn or Uber. I don’t think you should insist on remote work at your career stage. Unfortunately most companies have not embraced remote work, and it will severely limit your career options if you refuse to RTO.
I’m not excited about the startup itself as much, but I don’t wanna be the guy that said no and lost lot of money when the startup ipos. Trying to figure out risk to reward
You would likely have to work immensely harder at the startup than you do at Airbnb. I would not take that on in the absence of genuine intrinsic motivation.
Sounds like a terrible decision unless you’re about to get fired at Airbnb. Startups tend to lie about being profitable and it’s almost certainly a huge pay cut even if they IPO. Your YOE?
How is it a pay cut if they ipo? 7
US venture-backed startups have a <10% chance of reaching IPO or acquisition and that’s often with heavy stock dilution and lockup periods, so you’re even less likely to get paid as much as you would by staying at Airbnb. See Instacart for example, where employees where only able to sell their shares for a small fraction of their pre-IPO value. The 10% is no exaggeration; I read that in a reputable source.
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If both are high earner why take risk? Should enjoy your WLB and have quality family time.
As in, I won’t be in trouble financially if the startup doesn’t work out well
If you value Potential High Money >> WLB then startup otherwise Airbnb. Its a simple choice.