If you are interested in the problem domain of the startup, do the startup. If you aren't interested in it, it's not your life passion, don't do it. You will le

If you are interested in the problem domain of the startup, do the startup. If you aren't interested in it, it's not your life passion, don't do it. You will learn more at the startup about the tech game in general, but that knowledge will only be worth something if it is part of a longer term strategy as no one startup is an assured success. Also, there is risk in joining a startup. I'm not talking about the financial risk, I'm talking about the risk of you joining some startup that has no good mentors to learn from, and, while you will certainly have more "change control" than at a large company, what point is that if you are constantly making the wrong changes? Unless you're a person that likes to (and can) learn on their own the hard way. Prepare yourself for the possibility that you may be the only one you can "fall back on". Google, on the other hand, will provide a different kind of education. You'll generally learn the same amount of information but it will be more specialized and the pace will generally be slower (which can be a good thing). There will be less pressure on "getting something done and working" and more pressure on "doing the right thing". These two characteristics are often directly opposed which is why a lot of people who like startups say they hated Google and vice versa. The negative in that being if you spend several years specializing in a very bespoke part of Google, you won't be any more prepared to either join a startup or start your own -- the only way to get startup experience is to work for one. In fact, although people may respect that you've worked at Google, in my experience ex-Googlers aren't an assured success as startup employees and are no better as founders than someone coming from any of the other large companies. It can be a shell-shock coming from Google where there is a lot of support to join a startup where there is no support and you must loosen your standards and understand where you can and cannot cut corners. Also those people who make excellent early stage startup employees often don't survive the transition to behemoth tech company.