IMO medium sized startups that have raised a lot of money are the worst to join - still giving out options but are too expensive to consider early exercise and

IMO medium sized startups that have raised a lot of money are the worst to join - still giving out options but are too expensive to consider early exercise and too expensive to exercise if you end up leaving after 1 year. IMO you should either join a super early startup that you really believe in and pay a few thousand to early exercise OR join a proven late stage startup that converted to RSUs and avoid paying for options in the first place.