> Startups are only for people who are under ~25 (maybe 30), have no families, are willing to spend all their waking hours pursuing someone else's dream, and think they're going to make bank doing it and are willing to take that gamble.

OR those over 55 whose kids have left school, have mostly paid off their debts, already achieved a few things and have the experience, strength of character and financial stability to look their 23 year old CEO in the eye and say "sorry, I'm busy this weekend" when necessary.

Rapid exit focused startups are no place for those in their 30's and 40's. I say this as someone who spent their 30's and 40's in startups but survived.

The odds of getting a six figure payout at a startup is lower than the odds of getting a six figure annual salary at bigco. Which dramatically changes the math.

The real startup appeal is you don't need to be great or play the game, you just need to be lucky.

> The odds of getting a six figure payout at a startup is lower than the odds of getting a six figure annual salary at bigco.

Well-funded, small start-ups that are high growth can still get to 80% of "bigco" salaries--well into six figures. If you are fine on a bit less (which is still a LOT more than many make), then you can also get more freedom and a few lottery tickets thrown in.

Some even build a "diversified portfolio" out of those tickets.

I'm 35 and have only worked at startups. I'm at the largest company I've ever worked for now, and we've grown since I started from ~20 to ~80 employees. Previous companies I was in the first 10. I think you need to pick your startups better. Every company I've worked at has pad me reasonably well(admittedly less than the big companies), has not required more than 40 hours/week except literally for one or two days around a high pressure launch or demo.

I guess you're right, in that I wouldn't go work for a large tech company - it would be hard to convince me to give up the level of freedom I have and ability to contribute to company direction.

I treat startup stock like lottery tickets. It'll almost certainly not pay off, but it's a nice dream. All the companies I've worked at are still around and doing well, so the payout(s) still might happen someday.

Out of curiosity, what "freedom" is that exactly?

I am copying this to Evernote because you pretty much described everything that is wrong with startups.

Now, to be fair, there are good things as well, but they are more rare. 37 Signals comes to mind as innovative company that is doing things just right. They never wanted to even be associated with startup world.

37 Signals isn't really a startup in the traditional sense in that it isn't designed to scale up. It's more like a "small business" or "lifestyle business". And there's nothing wrong with that but it's a different type of organization.