i think you're the one kidding yourself. by "most of the country" do you mean seattle, NYC, and california? i work in a middle-america capital city and i make

i think you're the one kidding yourself. by "most of the country" do you mean seattle, NYC, and california? i work in a middle-america capital city and i make half what you're quoting as a software engineer with 3-4 years experience and i'm in a leadership position. in addition, i'm working at the best paying employer in the city in which i work. also, working full time on a startup means that you're going to not be making top dollar for your local market. if my time is devoted to being a full time hacker, i'm not going to have the stability of a regular paycheck or benefits. money will be an issue. sure, there are tons of startups that are gearing themselves to flip. but you're seeing a lot of them because the ones trying to be flipped are all in-your-face. they have to be extremely well-known in order to be flippable. there are tons of sustainable stealth startups that are just not that well-known because their business model is different.