
Ask HN: How do you decide to be a very early employee at a startup? - swyx
Assume that:<p>- you someday want to start your own thing (bootstrapped or VC, no opinion) but you&#x27;re in no rush, you think experience at a rocketship does bring some value<p>- you get 0.5-1.0% in options<p>- you believe it&#x27;s a good startup with a cool idea, but can&#x27;t predict how cool<p>- you could easily get a decent (not amazing, just decent) job paying much more at a BigCo and could bootstrap your own thing as a side hustle<p>I think I don&#x27;t understand the early employee mindset (say &lt;10 people, pre Series A) and would love insight from people who&#x27;ve been thru this. Thank you in advance!
======
chmaynard
Wanting to start your own venture is a noble ambition -- I hope you do it!
Working as an employee at either a startup or a big company will not prepare
you in any way for being a founder. But if the work is fun and you think you
will learn something useful, then by all means go for it.

Don't compromise on your salary, you should be paid the market rate. Oh, and
the options are probably worthless.

~~~
swyx
thanks! i definitely felt like my time at a series B-C startup didnt really
prepare me so you're right. i'm wondering if the pre-A stage is different.

i think "the market rate" is a myth, or at least too simplistic a model.
there's FAANG, and then there's everyone else. The difference seems to be
about 1-200k (not kidding). the startups i speak to literally cant afford my
FAANG comp. Does that mean the whole world should move to FAANG payscales? no,
even though i'd benefit, i don't believe that.

