I worked for a few startups like that - we had a great team, we had great technology, we were making the world a better place without harming anyone… and we ran

I worked for a few startups like that - we had a great team, we had great technology, we were making the world a better place without harming anyone… and we ran out of money while negotiating sales contracts. In one case I continued working there without pay for 9 months, just because everything-except-the-money was amazing (and the CEO chose to sell all of her personal assets in order to keep the employees being paid as long as possible). But predictably, that wasn’t sustainable, and now I’m a generic FAANG engineer