No offense, but your choice of talking point reads a bit like gatekeeping and ageism. One can just as easily argue that most startups fail therefore "most start

No offense, but your choice of talking point reads a bit like gatekeeping and ageism. One can just as easily argue that most startups fail therefore "most startup employees aren't suited for startups" either... I'd certainly say that stagnation/passiveness is going to be a problem for a startup early employee candidate, but there's nothing inherent about being a FAANG dev or being in the startup scene that necessarily equates to drive. I know of "lifers" that have a ton of drive; they just also happen to have incredible alignment with their companies. Here's an anecdotal story about the meaninglessness of labels: My own brother joined a startup in its early days. He had just come out of a PhD program, and despite having had virtually no prior industry experience (neither startup or corporate), he eventually grew to the position of director of tech. The startup IPOed last year. Its name? Duolingo.