HACKER Q&A
📣 swyx

How do you decide to be a very early employee at a startup?


Assume that:

- you someday want to start your own thing (bootstrapped or VC, no opinion) but you're in no rush, you think experience at a rocketship does bring some value

- you get 0.5-1.0% in options

- you believe it's a good startup with a cool idea, but can't predict how cool

- you could easily get a decent (not amazing, just decent) job paying much more at a BigCo and could bootstrap your own thing as a side hustle

I think I don't understand the early employee mindset (say <10 people, pre Series A) and would love insight from people who've been thru this. Thank you in advance!

  👤 chmaynard Accepted Answer ✓
Wanting to start your own venture is a noble ambition -- I hope you do it! Working as an employee at either a startup or a big company will not prepare you in any way for being a founder. But if the work is fun and you think you will learn something useful, then by all means go for it.

Don't compromise on your salary, you should be paid the market rate. Oh, and the options are probably worthless.