Examples like these highlight just how incredibly poor the return on investment for working at startups is. Very few will ever reach a $500m exit. Generously as

Examples like these highlight just how incredibly poor the return on investment for working at startups is. Very few will ever reach a $500m exit. Generously assuming a 50% tax rate, $175k before tax, spread over 8 years is ~$44k/yr. As a founding engineer, you could likely find a similar job at FAANG/FAANG-adjacent companies paying 2-3x that in (liquid) stock per year. Lifestyle arguments aside, startups seem like a _really_ bad deal.