At my 5th startup now, with good pay, normal hours, really interesting technology (not a website). Startup 1: Decent pay. Extremely long hours and high stress.

At my 5th startup now, with good pay, normal hours, really interesting technology (not a website). Startup 1: Decent pay. Extremely long hours and high stress. Fascinating technology. IPO. Startup 2: Average pay. Very long hours and high stress. Very interesting technology. Very profitable acquisition (right at the end of the dotcom bubble). Acquiring company killed the product line. Go figure. Startup 3: OK pay. Easy life but dull technology. Dull, dull, dull. Surprisingly, paid off a little years later in an acquisition. Did I say how dull it was? Startup 4: Good pay. Great technology -- got to build a distributed key/value store before it was cool. Most stressful work experience of my life. Very long hours during this period, but it let up once the product was working. Very good payoff in an acquisition. Acquiring company kept the product going, but it was Dilbert-land, so here I am at startup 5.