First of all, of course the number of A-team engineers willing to work for half the pay is small. But staying out of FAANG means more than just 50% less initia

First of all, of course the number of A-team engineers willing to work for half the pay is small. But staying out of FAANG means more than just 50% less initial total compensation. FAANGs offer career growth, including pay growth, that simply doesn't exist in startup world. Even if reality won't hit you when you just accepted a $200k startup job when your college friend with the same experience got $400k, it will hit you 4-5 years later, when you're hunting for your next job for $200-250k while that friend is making $500-600k+ because your startup fizzled out or got acquired for peanuts while his FAANG just kept growing and carrying his career up with it. Or it will hit when you try to get into your next startup and realize that startups are the first to look up to FAANG engineers. That engineers with FAANG experience get all the interviews, and are lavished with the best offers and most senior positions in startup-land. While the only reward you get for staying in startupland is... being considered a B-player. Finally, let's profile the "FAANG-hating" engineer willing to work for startups for half the pay. As you said, this engineer is sacrificing most of their pay for a work environment in which they feel more comfortable. Is that great for the employer too? Would that engineer agree to sacrifice other aspects of their comfort, such as WLB, to make the startup succeed? Of course not. Their equity stake is negligible, they're unaligned with the company's goals. They work there for the fun, and once that fun stops, there are dozens of other startups waiting to hire them at the same (low) comp package. Startups today don't just underpay - they completely fail to align their senior employees. The combination of minuscule equity stake, no career growth prospects, high risk and constant job-hopping means as a senior engineer you will not be rewarded for good performance. Much as we love to disparage "sclerotic big tech", I've seen more mission alignment there because employees expect ample reward - in pay and long-term promotions. In fact the typical profile of an "A-team engineer who'd rather work at startups" is someone who spent several years in FAANG, acquired FU money there, and now looking at startup work as fun CoastFIRE if not a harmless retirement hobby that pays a bit of money as well. On top of all this, let's not forget that even if you're absolutely obsessed with working at a small "non-sclerotic" company, there are still options for you, including unicorns and plenty of small successful shops that aren't startups.