I work with startups because of the array of possibilities - none of them monetary. I've never cared about shares, and mentor folks to do the same. If you do what you love you never work a day in your life. But if you chase the pot of gold, you have to hope there's always sunshine after the rain.
I don't see how what I wrote led to this assumption. It's just that I don't value the shares in a startup - ever. I value the salary side, and enjoy the interesting work.
Work at a startup in a field you love with coworkers who also pour their blood sweat and tears into the company, only to have the founders fail upwards and employees left with nothing. Then you might feel differently.
Founders shouldn't be exiting with massive rewards when the risk they took was only marginally higher than early employees.
Yeah, I enjoyed my time there and I learned a lot. But a mismanaged company shouldn't reward the management and leave employees with nothing after all is said and done.
To many people who value $$$ to get other important things in their life, shares are a meaningful factor in their expected value from devoting their life to a job.
So when you say you don't work at a startup for monetary reasons, and that you don't care about shares, which has an expected value of real money despite the uncertain outcome, it's natural to wonder if you don't care about compensation aka money.
The compensation has to cover the needs/expectstions. See Maslow's hierarchy as a simple model.
Pay me a million for something I don't care about in a bad environment and I won't do good work.
Pay me 50k (I make more, but 50k is a good value for a good living here in the region) and let me do something I like in a fun environment and I get things done.
Why are we talking about good work? Whether the work is good isn't the employee's problem. I'd love to get $1m/yr for bad work, so I can put that money to good use.
