"My apologies to the YC founders looking for employees, but being an early stage engineer (not a founder) at a startup is for suckers."
This is a pretty broad statement that I'd disagree with.
First of all, plenty of startups pay market rate (or close enough to it).
Second (and way more important) most BigCo jobs are woefully bad at preparing you to spin up your own thing. Don't believe me? Come to Seattle sometime and watch how fast all of the Ex-Microsoft entrepreneurs hire "program managers" and VPs. Working in a small startup can teach you a lot about what works (and what doesn't) on a small team with limited resources.
Third, it gets you into the game. You meet other folks who like startups who can be useful later (from co-founders to future hires to investors).
I'm talking about really early stage people... the guys brought on for peanuts and options, pre series A.
- Pre series-A, startups can't really pay market rate, unless they have huge angel investment or the founder is rich and financing the thing himself.
- BigCo jobs probably do encourage the entrepreneurs to do things the same way they did at the BigCo. However, in your example the Ex-Microsoft entrepreneurs are hiring program managers and VPs. Thus, they have enough money to pay these sorts of employees. Which means they got rich at Microsoft or their MS resume point convinced investors to give them money.
- Working in a small startup CAN teach you a lot about what works, but the same thing rarely works twice. Note I'm talking about engineers. All the stuff I learned about server scaling in 1998 wasn't as important in 2008.
- It does get you into the game, but so does being employee number 30 with a comfortable post series-A salary and free backrubs.
Tony, many of the YC aspirants posting here have zero experience in BigCo's or anywhere else --- but we all still buy the idea that they can start a company. I've worked with ex-Microsofties, and I know what you're talking about, but I disagree with the idea that a BigCo job hurts your chances of starting something when the time is right.
This is a pretty broad statement that I'd disagree with.
First of all, plenty of startups pay market rate (or close enough to it).
Second (and way more important) most BigCo jobs are woefully bad at preparing you to spin up your own thing. Don't believe me? Come to Seattle sometime and watch how fast all of the Ex-Microsoft entrepreneurs hire "program managers" and VPs. Working in a small startup can teach you a lot about what works (and what doesn't) on a small team with limited resources.
Third, it gets you into the game. You meet other folks who like startups who can be useful later (from co-founders to future hires to investors).