I never understood who takes up these offers. You want me to give up my $220k+ salary plus RSU (let's say worth $60k/yr), to join a startup and take $100k/yr salary.
In effect, I'd be "investing" $180k/yr and putting in crazy hours for a 1% equity that gets diluted to nearly nothing in a few funding rounds. How does that make sense?
You can only invest your time and salary cut into a single company, while angel and VC investor can invest their time and money into many companies. They only need 1 of those investments to skyrocket. You need 100% of your investments (size 1) to skyrocket for it to make sense.
Sure, if you hit the jackpot and join Facebook, then you're set for life. But that's an extreme outlier, otherwise I wouldn't be using it as an example.
In effect, I'd be "investing" $180k/yr and putting in crazy hours for a 1% equity that gets diluted to nearly nothing in a few funding rounds. How does that make sense?
You can only invest your time and salary cut into a single company, while angel and VC investor can invest their time and money into many companies. They only need 1 of those investments to skyrocket. You need 100% of your investments (size 1) to skyrocket for it to make sense.
Sure, if you hit the jackpot and join Facebook, then you're set for life. But that's an extreme outlier, otherwise I wouldn't be using it as an example.