Your own happiness is the biggest issue, you will have to reckon with that sooner or later. Beyond that, the issue of working for someone else is generally not

Your own happiness is the biggest issue, you will have to reckon with that sooner or later. Beyond that, the issue of working for someone else is generally not the problem, it's getting taken advantage of by fast-talking business people that turns people off. As tech becomes the new finance, the number of wheeler dealers proliferates, and experienced talent develops a well-earned distrust of the typical below-market salary pitch. This is one reason so many companies feed on the fresh talent straight out of college rather than pursuing older engineers, because it's much easier to maintain the pie-in-the-sky dream mentality that experienced hands know rarely pans out. The bottom line is if you want to get someone cheap, you need to take a risk on someone less experienced with something to prove, or else you need to bring in senior talent either by paying something approaching market or by giving them meaningful co-founder level equity instead of the pittance that is standard for engineering hire #1. I've also had some luck building teams from people outside the Bay Area with fewer opportunities and who, for whatever reason, did not fit the mold of the typical software developer.