This is a fine blog post, but it's really got little to do with being an early startup employee, which is reasonably obvious from the first sentence, "I've never been an employee at a startup, but I wish I had."
Good Stuff. I had a chance to be early in on a startup that was spun off the company I was working for... Seemed too risky, too much work, besides i was comfortable. A few years later those early start up employees were all millionaires. Big mistake. One of the few things in life I'd change if I could. Of course it could have been different, they could have gone broke, but they didn't, and I missed it. Don't be me. If you get the chance, go for it.
I wish I had a mentor for both technology and entrepreneurship. The technology side is not so bad, since I've got Google. But, it takes much longer to figure stuff out on the business side.
I hope my employees and former understudies think I've been a good technical mentor to them.