I'm sure there are a lot of really great companies, led by great people, that are backed by YC. But I wouldn't assume anything about the caliber or maturity of

I'm sure there are a lot of really great companies, led by great people, that are backed by YC. But I wouldn't assume anything about the caliber or maturity of a company just because it was accepted into YC. I spent a couple months on contract with a friend's startup that had been accepted to YC. The company was just 2 founders when I joined with a barebones concept and no customers. I ended up doing (in my biased view) most of the meaningful engineering work during my 2 months there, including 100% of the work to build the marketing page and the product demo that was used for their pre-seed raise. There was no semblance of work-life balance. There was an expectation to work every day. Every coding marathon to ship bled into the next day's work on equally urgent tickets. The offer I got to stay long-term was a few percentage points, vesting over 4 years, and a salary that would basically just cover living expenses. Another friend of mine had just got an offer at 350k total comp at a large company as a (MID-LEVEL!) engineer, so the decision to leave seemed pretty obvious. That said, I think there are some decent reasons to join a YC startup. - If you really believe in the company's mission, product, or founders - If you prefer the go-go-go work environment. Some people are just wired this way - If you plan to start your own company, it might make sense as a stepping stone and learning experience