I joined my first startup 20+ years ago because I liked creating software, being at the researchy end of the product spectrum, the informality and speed of a sm

I joined my first startup 20+ years ago because I liked creating software, being at the researchy end of the product spectrum, the informality and speed of a small company, having a lot of responsibility, and of course, the prospect of a big payout was attractive. I've been exceptionally lucky in all of these aspects, so I've been doing nothing but startups since then (except when I found myself at a big company post-acquisition). If you're going into it just to get rich quick, you are definitely doing it wrong. And your motivation is sufficiently off-course to pretty much guarantee that you won't get what you want.