Why is blind against startups?
It seems tge majority of blind users are against startups.... Why? FANG TC trumps over a potential IPO all the time? I am genuinely curious.
Because IPO’s being big pay days are rather like running the lottery. It’s not a robust strategy. Most small companies fail, after all. So in order to win big, you need to work for one that succeeds, and as yet I’m unaware of a reliable means of selecting that winning startup. Whereas with FANG, you have a consistency high TC, and if you are good at leetcode, a robust way of gaining access to these jobs.
But more chances to grow and learn in a startup than s big company. Founders with a track record help too. It’s a risk but the payoff can be a big one, no?
The payoff is a rare event, not the expected event. This kinda reminded me of a quaint firm started in the ‘90s by a pair of Nobel laureates. They had all the pedigree in the world, plenty of money, and yet still failed a few years later. But I think the risk-adjusted returns (as another poster said) don’t favor startups. As for learning, I can see the argument there. But there is still plenty one can learn in a large company too if you are looking for learning, so I don’t think that is a either-or proposition or anything.
FANG pays hard cash. Not dreams.
The thing is, RSU is overtime (4y) so TC 350 can easily be AnnualTC 200 You can have a lot better results in successful startup with a lot lower TC (including lower base)
Too bad we don’t know in advance which startups will be successful.
Start ups are notorious for over promising and over working. It's a very cloak and dagger type of environment in my opinion.
Risk adjusted return is significantly lower at a startup compared to FANG.
Almost always. Fang pays too much for senior folks for the risk to be worth it. And once you make enough, makes more sense to join a syndicate or angel invest if you have connections than take risk on common stock.
My only interaction with FANG has been amazon. I wasn’t that impressed with the $ they offered...
Amazon doesn't pay much in comparison with G/Fb/Apple/Netflix. They don't have refreshers at all and only compensate the top 5-10%, so don't count on Amazon for big money.
Startups, in aggregate, under pay and over work while providing shitty benefits and poor WLB. They largely exist to temporarily enrich the founders and line the pockets of VCs as most normal employees don't receive meaningful compensation in the form of options, so even if the company makes it big, mathematically you would have been better off at a bigcorp making a steady paycheck. Most individual startups will not check all these boxes but almost all will check some. It's like asking "why do people prefer playing poker to playing the slot machines. Don't you know slot machines have jackpots?" And they do, but you can't predict a jackpot, and while they do happen, they probably won't happen to you.
I learned a ton in my early stage startup job but I burned out in a year and have shit to show for it monetarily. It sucks putting out fires all the time, death marching to an unreasonable deadline. Honestly, not the worst plan, but if you go the startup route step back after you start vesting options. Exercising and moving on if you believe in the co is not the worst plan imo.
youre naive... a startup can cash out for $100M and you can own %10 and you get $0 and it is perfectly legal. Early employees always get fucked, in one way or another. Look up liquidation prefs.
Youre right big picture but your details are wrong. Liquid preferences only matter if sell price is below raised money + cash on hand. Down rounds do kill you and most companies wont sell for > 100M. Also for companies that do, only the founders will own 10% given all the dilution (30% per round)
Depends on the type of liquidation prefs (for example 2x or higher, or participate liquidation prefs). Basically what I'm trying to say is: 1. If the startup ends up doing amazing - then you would have only gotten 0.5% of something you worked so hard on, you should have just started it yourself to get 10-15%. 2. If the startup doesnt do amazing - you get fucked, period. There is a fine line in which a startup does amazing AND you were early enough to make money AND you could not have started it yourself / something similar. This is an edge case at best, nonexistent at worst.
Low testosterone, risk adverse, no vision, small peepee
DM me.