<story><title>How to Pick Your Next Gig: Evaluating Startups</title><url>http://www.samvitjain.com/blog/evaluating-startups/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dvt</author><text>Using Zuckerberg&amp;#x2F;Jobs&amp;#x2F;Bezos&amp;#x2F;Gates as archetypal examples of founders is a terrible idea as they are &lt;i&gt;extreme&lt;/i&gt; -- and I mean EXTREME -- outliers.&lt;p&gt;I also don&amp;#x27;t get how Jennifer Lawrence fits in any of this. As a counter-example, Chris Pratt, an equally-successful actor, was discovered by a stroke of luck when he was waiting tables in Hawaii.&lt;p&gt;Listen, I get it. It&amp;#x27;s cute to come up with pseudo-mathematical models that justify one opinion over another and that might help us make decision-making easier (Startup A vs. Startup B), but allow me to make a controversial point: if you&amp;#x27;re thinking about working for a startup, &lt;i&gt;don&amp;#x27;t&lt;/i&gt;. Starups traditionally underpay (due to offering equity), often have brogrammer cultures (and no real HR departments), will fire&amp;#x2F;lay you off at the drop of a hat, and working late hours with little recognition will be expected. The only exception to this rule is if you&amp;#x27;re one of the first ten-ish employees -- and, obviously, if you&amp;#x27;re a founder.&lt;p&gt;For obvious reasons, cap tables &lt;i&gt;highly&lt;/i&gt; favor early investors and owners. If you have a high-risk&amp;#x2F;high-reward type A personality, start a company! If you just want to have a career for a few dozen years and then more-or-less comfortably retire, join Google, or Facebook, or whatever. It makes absolutely no sense to join a startup if you&amp;#x27;re not even getting one point of equity.&lt;p&gt;Further, vesting will absolutely screw employees -- with either inflated share costs (if you leave the company) or with unfair lockout schedules (if you ever IPO). Not only that, but equity is utterly opaque: you literally have no idea how much it&amp;#x27;s &lt;i&gt;actually&lt;/i&gt; worth. It&amp;#x27;s important to understand that startups are a gamble for founders and for investors -- which is exactly why I &lt;i&gt;love&lt;/i&gt; startups: it&amp;#x27;s a perfect mix of skill and luck. With that said, in my opinion, for mid-to-late stage employees, the opportunity cost no longer makes sense. Unless you need a job to pay rent -- I&amp;#x27;ve been there :)</text></comment>
<story><title>How to Pick Your Next Gig: Evaluating Startups</title><url>http://www.samvitjain.com/blog/evaluating-startups/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>avip</author><text>Perhaps more perspective is needed before composing such blog post (undergrad, had single intern). Seems the norm now is once you&amp;#x27;ve walked 100m, stop and write about your amazing journey.&lt;p&gt;My selfish considerations for a startup:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  Can I remote
  Does it matter
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
If you&amp;#x27;re working on something that matters, and you need help, and you&amp;#x27;re accidentally reading this... please drop me a line.</text></comment>