The money aspect is interesting from a want-to-be founder's perspective.
Suppose you know you want to do a startup, but want to gain some "experience".
You could
A) Work at FANG for 4 years, put away 200-300k, blow most of it in the first year learning how to run a startup.
B) Work at a startup for 4 years, put away 50k, raise 200k seed and find yourself in roughly the same place, minus 10% equity.
For someone who doesn't intend to go on as a founder, my current conclusion is go to whoever will pay the most without completely compromising your morals.
The expected value of your options is not 400k, and even if you get lucky it wont be available for 8+ years. Dear 22 year old self, would you like to put a down payment on a house when your 30? If so, go get a job that aligns with your goals.
As others have mentioned here, as long as a founder isn't blatantly fraudulent, things tend to work out quite well for them. Founders learn the most and are often in the position to try again, either in the form of another startup or as a product manager within an established company. FAANG companies are also hungry for aquihires, so its possible that founders holding preferred stock may even walk away with something.
As an employee, the butt end of the bimodal distribution is probably negative. It's easiest to get through the FAANG hiring process as a new-grad, and not having one on your resume makes it even harder to break back in later.
My experiences only. I interned at and ultimately turned down a FAANG for startups 5 years ago. In the process of starting my own now.
Suppose you know you want to do a startup, but want to gain some "experience".
You could
For someone who doesn't intend to go on as a founder, my current conclusion is go to whoever will pay the most without completely compromising your morals.The expected value of your options is not 400k, and even if you get lucky it wont be available for 8+ years. Dear 22 year old self, would you like to put a down payment on a house when your 30? If so, go get a job that aligns with your goals.
As others have mentioned here, as long as a founder isn't blatantly fraudulent, things tend to work out quite well for them. Founders learn the most and are often in the position to try again, either in the form of another startup or as a product manager within an established company. FAANG companies are also hungry for aquihires, so its possible that founders holding preferred stock may even walk away with something.
As an employee, the butt end of the bimodal distribution is probably negative. It's easiest to get through the FAANG hiring process as a new-grad, and not having one on your resume makes it even harder to break back in later.
My experiences only. I interned at and ultimately turned down a FAANG for startups 5 years ago. In the process of starting my own now.