> You're taking a huge risk not working for Cisco, Oracle, Google, etc...any of the players you know won't cease to exist overnight.

Hmm. I hadn't thought of it that way. Thenagain, from what I've heard, A players don't hang around any particular company for more than 3 years since they are always looking to bump their paygrade. And despite what startups may ask for in job ads, they are not exclusively hiring superstar code ninja warriors.