I agree with everything you said except this point. > And they tend to get crushed by real tech companies. You'd be surprised how many legacy businesses are o

I agree with everything you said except this point. > And they tend to get crushed by real tech companies. You'd be surprised how many legacy businesses are out there, places in the US other than the west coast, who are thriving still and haven't been disrupted. Things like banking, insurance, manufacturing, healthcare. All of these industries have competition from startups, but are far from being crushed by them... Not yet at least. I like your litmus tests though. I think it is helpful for people to have some specific things they look out for as red flags, as some "little things" can really be an early indicator into how it would be to work there.