A good eng in defense (at the level needed to be a startup founder) should be making 150 uncleared to 250 secret to 300 ts or project lead or more if deployable. Working 40 hour weeks (well, working 5 hour weeks with 35 hours of meetings, admin, paperwork, and overhead)
A pre series a eng is making 30 to 60 if lucky. At series a, maybe 80 to 100.
Defense is almost a perpetual job, whereas the half life of a pre series a startup is maybe 3 months, 1 yr for series a.
A programmer working defense state-side does not make nearly those figures.
80 to 100 is much closer to what a software engineer with several years of experience makes working for a defense contractor than 250, though of course actual years of experience and how well one has played the corporate ladder game can make a big impact.
Past a certain point it is relatively difficult to advance salary-wise without taking on management roles and giving up the hands-dirty side of programming / engineering. Once you're there it's an apples-to-oranges comparison for the kind of startups that are typical for HN-types ~ certainly no early stage startup is going to hire a 10-year manager to be employee #1 when what they really need is a hotshot programmer.
I admit my knowledge of stateside engineers in the large defense contractors is secondhand; trying to convert known deployed salaries and known eng and pm salaries at small product companies selling to usg.
Substitute working for a fund on the dev side and double my numbers to make the original argument stronger.
A pre series a eng is making 30 to 60 if lucky. At series a, maybe 80 to 100.
Defense is almost a perpetual job, whereas the half life of a pre series a startup is maybe 3 months, 1 yr for series a.
(apologies for formatting, on iPad)