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Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018?

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Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018?

#231

Post by DogOnTheWeb »

swyx wrote: post #212
joshe wrote: post #138

This is such a great area to work on. The equity side is pretty rough. Founders are very sensitive about disclosing important information about company performance. They are sensitive about disclosing the cap table. Some will share info with investors that they don't share with employees. And they are sometimes trying to pitch optimistically and leaving out items that don't fit the narrative. So you end up with a ver…

> $800 million dollar startups die all the time is this the case? i actually don't know that it is.

(Sample size of one)

I worked at a unicorn startup five years ago in the bay which no longer exists. Anyone who bought the options -- and the company was very cagey on providing cap table info -- was left with nothing.

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018?

#232

Post by modeless »

0wl3x wrote: post #116
nieksand wrote: post #2

Just a few cons.... The big players have drastically pushed up developer comp. The "maybe" money that might come from a best-case startup exit isn't holding up well against the RSUs of the big players. I have friends pushing total comp north of 400K / year at the usual suspect companies. Over a five-year-span-till-liquidity your "maybe" money is competing against a near-guaranteed $2M in comp. Equity grants for early…

is the compensation really like this for a mid level engineer at a FAANG? I'm still fairly new into my career and I can't believe that the enterprise money is sooo much better than the startup world. I'm currently earning around 120k a year with health insurance and no equity. Should I really be designing on trading up into a nice big enterprise job?

Facebook's median compensation across all employees is $240k. Median of engineer compensation would be significantly higher. Also note that Facebook's median age is 29.

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018?

#233

Post by ninkendo »

cm2187 wrote: post #147
justboxing wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This.

Stupid question. What does “this” means? (“what does this means” isn’t really googleable).

It means "I agree with this, but have nothing else to contribute to the discussion, and don't understand that an upvote would suffice, or I just want to pad the number of comments I'm making on this site."

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018?

#235

Post by eanzenberg »

neutrino7 wrote: post #190
0wl3x wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is the compensation really like this for a mid level engineer at a FAANG? I'm still fairly new into my career and I can't believe that the enterprise money is sooo much better than the startup world. I'm currently earning around 120k a year with health insurance and no equity. Should I really be designing on trading up into a nice big enterprise job?

I just started a job as a data scientist at a FAANG company. PhD + 2 years of experience for $200k total compensation (plus another $50k in one time bonuses/relo). It’s almost double what my previous (non-tech) employer paid. Although I’m starting to wonder if I should have gone the software engineering route instead. SWEs get double the RSUs as data scientists for the same experience level (so ~250k for my level) an…

I'm in a somewhat similar boat and have seen DS positions at FAANG not pay as well as SWE. Why is that?

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018?

#236

Post by lgregg »

davidw wrote: post #29

Here's what I consider the 'sweet spot': A small company, say 20-50 people or thereabouts, that has a profitable niche and does not require much in the way of investments. Here's why: * Small is more fun for me - I like knowing everyone I work with, and the chance to see what other people are working on, and maybe move around some in what I'm doing, rather than 'the same thing day in and day out at BigCo'. Your work…

> I have a bias for cash, not equity.

I'm like you. I'd rather take cash and dump it into my 401k or an index fund for retirement.

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018?

#237

Post by avip »

inimino wrote: post #218
shamino wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I joined a moderately successful startup (good acquisition where founders made > $1 m) and the rewards were not worth the risks as an early employee. Also, the RSUs are low risk, high rewards at the "usual suspects". Unless you love working on a small team with more autonomy, but without comfortable resources and losing sleep over whether your company will be there next week, I just don't see the attraction of…

> Why do founders get over 10x early employees? Because founders take at least 100x the risk of an early employee, and 100x the personal risk and commitment. Founders generally aren't getting paid (at least until revenue or significant funding comes through) and they have 100x the impact that an early employee does on the success of the company. If an early employee doesn't work out, the founders just replace that pe…

Founders are being paid passed seed. So their risk economy spans "garage to seed". Following that, they certainly do have x10 commitment, and non-existing "work-life balance".

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018?

#238

Post by [deleted] »

bitcoinmoney wrote: post #140
toomuchtodo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Entirely accurate. At a startup, I expect to make ~$100k/year, have mediocre insurance and work life balance, and underwhelming equity ( Unless you’re a founder, I actively steer colleagues away from working at a startup. The sense of accomplishment, impact, or whatever the feel good term is, isn’t worth shorting yourself on significant comp for years (while founders and funds are getting almost all the upside). Edit…

How many years of experience do you have and what industry? Just trying to get a picture of your profile.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018?

#239

Post by ddebernardy »

akavi wrote: post #130

So, I work at a startup. But, to echo what literally everyone else has said: The money is better at big companies. There are exceptions, but you almost certainly won't work for one of them. You will make more money at Google or Facebook or Netflix than you will at all but the luckiest choice of startup. Note I didn't say "best" choice or "most successful" choice. Gotta get in small, and exit big, which, no matter wha…

Your worldview will change when you've dependents. :-)
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