Id say your math is on par from a purely financial perspective. While you touched on it, if you additionally factor in your pay from a per hour cost perspectiv

Id say your math is on par from a purely financial perspective. While you touched on it, if you additionally factor in your pay from a per hour cost perspective the equation can get even more extremely lopsided. Many employees who frequent the startup world won't like to admit it or may not realize it, but the majority of employees who stick with startups incur a decent sized opportunity cost from a financial perspective and the hope is that that can be squashed at some point down the line with a home run exit (these are indeed rare). Your median (note the word median not average) big corp engineer is going to be financially better off than your median startup engineer employee. So why do people do it? Some people find the environment to be fun and exciting - it usually involves more creativity and quick thinking than a big corp. Some people find that they can get a fancier title easier at a startup (ex. not too unusual to find a startup with a CTO who is few years out of college). Some people have to live in SF/NY and want to be apart of the scene. Some people want to have a big impact in their company and find it easier to do in a startup. Some people want to always have the chance to make millions no matter the odds. If you're just looking at it primarily financially and you are level headed enough to not be woo-ed by Aaron Sorkin movies, the truth is that the math for the average outcome will never work out for startups (as an employee). Id say the best options are work for big-corp, start your own startup, or have a strong non-financial reason to join a startup as an employee.