The poster talks about being the <10th employee, so I don't think he's considering going to work for Microsoft or Google. It's questionable that there is much

The poster talks about being the <10th employee, so I don't think he's considering going to work for Microsoft or Google. It's questionable that there is much overlap between the "hows and whys" of the practices of these companies (that count their employees by the thousands and their bottom line by the billions), with the "hows and whys" of what you need for a startup. Any opportunity to learn is valuable; whether learning the MS/Google way is a good choice depends on your alternatives.