Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018?

Re:Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018? by IggleSniggle on Monday June 11, 2018 @07:18PM (#17289450)

Just to bring some perspective...when I was starting out, I was a teacher. I put in 12-16 hour days, got paid the inflation adjusted equivalent of 23k/yr, and put school supplies on my CC while facing the significant opportunity cost of spending my most energetic years empowering others.

I finally burned out and “retired” to 10x the salary at half the time and energy cost.

My point is that people will do things that are not in their financial interests because they are believers. Early employees are believers. I think you are underestimating the amount that early employees are putting on the line, including things like out of pocket costs for services for those businesses. People ARE doing it wrong, if rationally self-interested is your metric.

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Re:Ask HN: Pros and cons of working at a startup in 2018? by _m96l on Monday June 11, 2018 @07:29PM (#17289510)

I loved your response. Just to add to it: early startup employees aren't working hard just because they selflessly want to contribute. They often hold the belief (typically mistaken nowadays) that their equity will be worth tens of millions of dollars, because that's what the founders told them. So they pour their heart and soul into this venture that will surely make them rich.

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