I'm not sure about your businesses, but that sounds super great. (Though even 30 hours a week and a quarter of that is super great if you're happy). But I don

I'm not sure about your businesses, but that sounds super great. (Though even 30 hours a week and a quarter of that is super great if you're happy). But I don't think joining a startup as an employee is terrible - perhaps it's even better - you get to watch some of the wheels in the machine, without being, well, between the cogs :) There are advantages and disadvantages - if the company is young and it acts like it, it can be chaos - but you probably don't have the bureaucracy and maybe it doesn't act like it. I've seen 400 person companies that acted more like 10 person startups and 30 person startups that acted like 400 person companies. It all varies. Join the company who's people, product, and culture make you the most happy, IMHO. The startup isn't a terrible idea as an employee, as long as you aren't doing it for the profit. And you could still do ok, but ... that's not reason to do it. I love the idea of a bootstrapped business, and it's a shame in certain circles that's looked down upon. Getting to a place where you can build the right thing and only grow when you want to grow, and care about employees (if applicable) first and foremost is super fantastic. If you can do this, every time, do this. The VC equation is entirely a profit model and the focus on growth causes all kinds of tradeoffs.