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Here are the facts. To have a chance of a successful exit everyone in any startup needs to work real hard. Simple as that. If you are not interested in that,

by dmk23 15y ago

Here are the facts. To have a chance of a successful exit everyone in any startup needs to work real hard. Simple as that. If you are not interested in that, do not sign up for a startup, whether as a founder or employee. If you want to do startup, the deal is to work hard for a chance of a successful exit. Run your scenarios, estimate the chance of a successful exit, how much you can make realistically and decide if that kind of deal is for you. If not, there are plenty of larger companies hiring or you can bootstrap a slower-paced lifestyle business. There is no real controversy here.

_delirium 15y ago
Startups vary in what they mean by "work real hard", though, so it's possible to pick one where it doesn't mean 80-hour weeks. A subset of the job openings (including some of the YC-company ads here) go out of their way to emphasize normal-ish working hours, strong work/life balance, commitment to avoiding employee burnout, etc. It seems a lot of startups complain about the difficulty recruiting employees, and offering more appealing working conditions might be one way to improve that.