Comment by freddie_mercury
6 years ago
> FAANG pay has gone through the roof while startup pay has not
That's because FAANGs have been profitable and startups haven't, in general.
There's no rule of the universe saying startups have to be unprofitable.
A profitable startup can, in fact, pay through the roof.
Once again, I assert that the valuations are rising too high, too quickly, and so even if you are optimistic about profitability, you won't see a return that's worth leaving your golden beanbag chair at a FAANG. Why would I join a startup after an 8-9 figure Series A valuation for a 10-figure market? And yet, that's what my options were in my industry.
> A profitable startup can, in fact, pay through the roof.
But most startups don't become profitable, most startups fail.
IMO, you should basically assume that any stock options a startup offers you are worth zero. Decide if you want the offer based on the base pay and how interesting/stimulating the work is.
Sure. Upon re-reading my comment I wasn't very clear. What I meant was along the lines of: the past decade VCs have convinced startups that they don't need to be profitable for many years. That's a pretty recent aberration. It took Google less than 3 years to become profitable, for instance.
I think the argument is less between "startups" and "tech giants" and more between "profitable companies" and "unprofitable companies". Profitable companies can also grow quickly, after all.