Yeah living in SF (or just the bay area) is pretty key. AirBnB, Uber, Tesla, FB, SnapChat (LA based, but a lot of friends moved there to join friends from the

Yeah living in SF (or just the bay area) is pretty key. AirBnB, Uber, Tesla, FB, SnapChat (LA based, but a lot of friends moved there to join friends from the peninsula and knew about it because of being here/near Stanford), Lyft, Snowflake, Stripe, eventually Robinhood, Roblox, Palantir, etc. I'm not saying luck isn't a factor - but the equation changes dramatically when you're in the bay area. A lot of people I know have been through exit events of some sort, many clear $1-5M via that (which is about enough to buy a house if you're closer to the $3-5M side). Fewer clear $20M+. That said, you could also have just worked at a FAANG and probably have saved $1-2M if you just stayed there over the last ten years (and obviously if you were at FB pre IPO in 2012). There's also a lot of opportunity to grow in that environment which can lead to higher incomes (particularly at a place like Netflix that just pays a lot up front). Doing a non-bay area startup seems riskier to me than working at a FAANG. If you live in the bay area for a bit - it's easier to learn which startups are likely to succeed. There's a reason YC moved from Boston.