False dilemma: there are plenty of jobs that pay fair market rates that don't involve hellish idiocy and bureaucracy. It's not somehow automatic in companies that are a different age than post-founder pre-funding.
There's nothing about a pre-funded startup that magically banishes the "kafkaesque". Conversely, there's nothing about being well-funded that keeps you from sleeping at night (quite the opposite, actually).
But the implication was that it had something to do with it being a startup. There are plenty of startups with neurotic founders, and plenty of big companies that aren't a Kafkaesque nightmare.
Right, I implied that it had something to do with being a startup because it does. In this specific example.
I'm not saying that 'all startups good, all big company bad' is some sort of globally applicable law and I'm not sure how or why anyone would read that into what I've said.
"False dilemma: there are plenty of jobs that pay fair market rates that don't involve hellish idiocy and bureaucracy. It's not somehow automatic in companies that are a different age than post-founder pre-funding."
True in California.
Not so much in other places. In India, you can work for body shopper process heavy companies (Wipro Infosys etc) , "India dev center" s of MegaCorps, which are universally severely dysfunctional and bureaucratic (Even Google and Yahoo aren't immune, their Indian operations are overrun by Middle Management and by and large, you get (relatively) crappy work (ops/legacy code etc)). Or you can work for the very few decent startups at below-market rates.
Choices, choices ;-)
Not so much opposing your view point as qualifying it a bit.
PS: If anyone knows of an Indian company that pays well, has great work, and is not infested by bureaucracy, let us know. I have friends who are looking to move from both Kafkaesque BigCo jobs and underpaid startup jobs.
There's nothing about a pre-funded startup that magically banishes the "kafkaesque". Conversely, there's nothing about being well-funded that keeps you from sleeping at night (quite the opposite, actually).