It's a frustrating and uncertain place to be as a founder.
You're being paid peanuts compared to what you could be making in the industry (generally your comp is garbage until maybe Series C) and your equity is already as good as it's ever going to get, so some reasons to stay behind are:
1. you're really enjoying the gig
2. you think that by you staying behind, the overall worth of your equity will be higher than by having someone else take over
3. you think that quitting at that stage will be a permanent black mark on your record, the captain abandoned the ship
4. you're totally out of money after years of trying to make ends meet with a startup founder gig, so you can't start a new company without spending a year or two working for someone else first
There's real opportunity cost to sticking around. You could be starting a new business and begin another 4 year vesting countdown there. Maybe you're ok working for someone else, you could be at Google collecting a 1/2M paycheck, feeling like you're on vacation compared to a growth stage CEO job. Maybe you just want to take a breather and actually have time for your spouse and kids for a little bit, before another dive.
I'm in a similar tough spot, I'm the technical founder and am about to leave the company for health reasons. The difference between my case and what's described here, is that my salary isn't too bad (for Dutch standards) and that the investors are best described as angel investors.
The fact that they are angels makes everything more personal though. And with the current market, getting someone with my set of skills to replace me at a decent rate is going to be near impossible. It's a really tough spot, but in the end mental health is most important.
Keep in mind some founders have had careers before starting a company (average age of YC founders is like early 30s?) so they might have 10 years experience leading teams + some significant victories that came from their startup.
If someone fresh out of college just worked 5 years on their startup and then abandoned ship they probably wouldn't get a very impressive role unless their startup was a crazy fast success though.
If you interview well and have competing offers from large firms that shell out good cash, you can get that as a senior dev. Networking helps a lot, if you have the right friends working there, they'll make sure you interview with the right people.
1-2M is way above market for a "senior dev." Even for the top companies, that tier is reserved for truly outstanding performers who have launched major projects/innovations.
Yeah he said 500k. I Initially thought the same as you, 1-2mil.
500k for a senior dev is actually not too far out there. I have an L3 friend at Google (l3 is new hire level) who has been at the company for almost 2 years and who's total comp is almost 300k. So some L5s and L6s could certainly be pulling in 500k.
That link doesn't support the claim of "1/2M paycheck". L7, the first point at which there's a reported total comp over $1M, is a fairly senior position at Google. If you can walk in at L7, it probably means you've already "made it" somewhere else.
You're being paid peanuts compared to what you could be making in the industry (generally your comp is garbage until maybe Series C) and your equity is already as good as it's ever going to get, so some reasons to stay behind are:
1. you're really enjoying the gig
2. you think that by you staying behind, the overall worth of your equity will be higher than by having someone else take over
3. you think that quitting at that stage will be a permanent black mark on your record, the captain abandoned the ship
4. you're totally out of money after years of trying to make ends meet with a startup founder gig, so you can't start a new company without spending a year or two working for someone else first
There's real opportunity cost to sticking around. You could be starting a new business and begin another 4 year vesting countdown there. Maybe you're ok working for someone else, you could be at Google collecting a 1/2M paycheck, feeling like you're on vacation compared to a growth stage CEO job. Maybe you just want to take a breather and actually have time for your spouse and kids for a little bit, before another dive.
Tricky spot.