There is one potential difference, though, which is in the value of a full paycheck in the short to medium term. Some people may feel they just can't afford to

There is one potential difference, though, which is in the value of a full paycheck in the short to medium term. Some people may feel they just can't afford to forego a standard, market rate salary, and they wouldn't want to join a company that has a high chance of disappearing next month or failing to make payroll. But beyond that, they're not terrified of the idea of losing their job and looking for a new one. I think we may overstate at times how easy it is to get a job here on HN, but clearly there is a large population of strong programmers who can be picky about what they'll take and still get a decent job offer within a month or two of looking. I remember Marc Andressen writing about this on his blog a while back - that in a very tech dense place like silicon valley, startups aren't quite as risky as they might sound. A total meltdown in hiring is an outside risk (like the couple of years immediately after the first dot com bust), but otherwise, people often build up such a strong network and skillset through startups that they may have more "job" stability, if it's defined as the ability to get a job (I hear this referred to as "career stability"). None of this necessarily means that post series A is quite the right spot to be in. That might still have too poor a stability vs opportunity ratio. But some sort of "early employee" be the right spot for people who would like to optimize for potential returns under a strict constraint of earning a market-level (or close to it) salary.