I suspect the majority of entrepreneurs aren't doing it for the money, they are doing it because they don't fit the traditional corporate mould. The people the media loves to focus on are the outliers.
Also, for some of us, building your own company is much less risky than working for a company.
No matter how comfortable or secure you feel in your job, sudden layoffs can and do happen. Also, what if you develop an illness that makes you unable to work?
Having your company means you can make money while you sleep, you answer to the market (which on average is somewhat "rational") rather than to a (possibly capricious) boss, you get to grapple with a wide range of interesting challenges that take you out of your comfort zone and lead to personal growth, and so on.
As long as you are able to build a company that provides income at least comparable to what you would make at a job, I think the benefits are numerous. It is not for everyone though.
Maybe my understanding of "big company" salaries are skewed but I imagine there's a profitable middle ground between big company salary and hypergrowth? As long as one isn't taking VC money at least
On the flip side, I can't say I'm super sure what "hypergrowth" means, it's a rate of growth but I guess what really Matters is some expected valuation/market cap kinda thing
Isn't 500k+ TC on the upper upper end of the salary distribution though? Vs equity in a rapid growth 20% CAGR or somethin? Or hypergrowth that caps out around 2M ARR?
I guess I'm just trying to gain some career perspective on this heavily bootstrapped startup I'm at thats targeting the alt-thread-mentioned "medium sized traditional industry that has ancient, crummy software with a target customer employee size of 50 - 1,000 people." and whether it's really worth it for me
I wonder how the probability of securing such a job - with huge layoffs lately and increased competition - compares to the probability of business success. There's unemployed engineers grinding at system design and algorithms 10 hours a day for at least half a year to get an interview. If I'm going to spend hundreds of person hours on something, I think I'd rather start a company to be honest. Additionally, internationally those levels of pay are incredibly rare.
