> Also when you're young the pay differential between working at a startup and Google is smaller. If you're experienced enough to make Staff Engineer or someth

> Also when you're young the pay differential between working at a startup and Google is smaller. If you're experienced enough to make Staff Engineer or something the economics of a startup look a lot worse. Here's the thing, though. IMO successful entrepreneurs (startup or otherwise) have to want to be working for themselves. Money as a concern is of the form "Do I have enough money to make this work?" rather than "Can I make more money at MicroAmaGoogBook?". Personally, as someone who ultimately wants my own company and doesn't really want to sell portions of it to get there, I see the high-paying BigCo jobs as stepping stones to get to where I ultimately want to be. I don't see them as drawing me doen an alternate path.