As an AI professor, I have a love/hate relationship with my job, but I suddenly have four other job opportunities (none of which I applied for). One of these is an AI start-up. The mission is important, but it isn’t something I would be interested in doing on my own, unlike my lab’s research (fun but worthless in the short-term). I’m very successful in my current job, have a lot of impact, etc. (big fish, small pond), but it is hard to achieve my goals without going to a higher ranked university. So, I’ve been considering leaving. The start-up opportunity would include a leadership role making new algorithms with the help of software developers. The start-up has received press and has done a large Series A. Very rich folks are trying to convince me to join.
I love a lot of things about my current job (mentoring, working on the things I am super passionate about, shaping lives), and I hate a lot of things (always stressed/busy, very low salary compared to industry, tons of distractions from research, writing grants that will probably be rejected and without them I can’t do my research, teaching required courses to students that don’t want to be there, politics, etc.). It would be hard to return to academia if I did this. The salary is 4x what I make currently, but the cost of housing would go up by 3x. If I was to do this, what should I ask for in equity? What would be the right things to ask for to make it worth the risk?
I love a lot of things about my current job (mentoring, working on the things I am super passionate about, shaping lives), and I hate a lot of things (always stressed/busy, very low salary compared to industry, tons of distractions from research, writing grants that will probably be rejected and without them I can’t do my research, teaching required courses to students that don’t want to be there, politics, etc.). It would be hard to return to academia if I did this. The salary is 4x what I make currently, but the cost of housing would go up by 3x. If I was to do this, what should I ask for in equity? What would be the right things to ask for to make it worth the risk?