Yeah, I too know this feeling. I started out my career working at a BigCo making a nice salary/stock/bonus. After 3 years there I left to join a early startup

Yeah, I too know this feeling. I started out my career working at a BigCo making a nice salary/stock/bonus. After 3 years there I left to join a early startup (engineer #4) and took a 30% paycut so I could get more stock. 2.5 years later and I've earned a bunch more stock grants, but my salary has stayed flat (my choice -- we were on a good trajectory so I always preferred stock options over salary bumps). Now our prospects are not looking good and I doubt there is any upside to the stock. I definitely considered this scenario when deciding to join the startup, and I always rationalized it as "at the very least it will be a good experience". Well, it definitely was good experience, and I learned a lot more at the startup than the BigCo, but as I consider my next career move I'm not exactly sure what the right move is. Who knows, w/ the economy how it is I will probably just have to take what I can get :).