vtry

Sure, and hire a bunch of people who don't know what they are doing.

Do remember that Google has hired away pretty much all the top engineers already. You won't be able to get good people for cheap prices anymore.

I want some of that golden money!

Some startups will be worth it (eg: Google, Facebook), but if you average them all, the risk/reward ratio is not worth it in general. There are a lot of crap startup out there, and you only have so many years.

Also, if you are a VC or a co-founder, then the risk/rewards ratio totally changes, and it's most definitely worth it. But if you are like the rest of us, then it's a big NO.

Early stage startups are really not worth it from a risk/rewards perspective.

It also turns out that, contrary to conventional wisdom, making the first offer is also a good strategy:

starting prices are a form of 'anchor' - a piece of information which is known to affect subsequent decisions. As the authors note, anchoring has a powerful influence on our reasoning: