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.
That's director-level compensation. Would somebody whose only experience is 4-5 years of running a startup be hired straight into a director role?