> Forget about whether it's good for the market as a whole for the moment: is there a solution for the average tech employee?
Not really. Working at a startup is almost certainly going to result in lower compensation than working at an established company that grants RSUs or options.
The decline in IPOs is a net negative for engineers who work at startups. At the same time this has been happening, larger companies have been increasing compensation for engineers.
The situation is now like this: you can work at a startup for several years and hope to make a big windfall if you get in early enough to get a lot of shares and there is an acquisition or an IPO, or you can work at a FAANG company for 5 years and make a million dollars or more with none of the risk, better benefits, and probably better work-life balance.
Some people are passionate about startup culture, and they should probably go work at startups, but for everyone else startup work is becoming an increasingly larger sacrifice.
If what you say is accurate (and, I admit, it’s a logical progression from the situation I mentioned), the Nash equilibrium is that only people who don’t know or don’t care their comp is going to be stunted will work at startups. That seems bad for the startup ecosystem, so VCs and founders ought to care about it, but they don’t seem to. That seems to point to a flaw in the chain of reasoning.
There is also the reality that not everybody can work at FAANG. I know plenty of average engineers who know which way the economic wind is blowing but haven't been able to successfully make it through the process at big companies.
Not really. Working at a startup is almost certainly going to result in lower compensation than working at an established company that grants RSUs or options.
The decline in IPOs is a net negative for engineers who work at startups. At the same time this has been happening, larger companies have been increasing compensation for engineers.
The situation is now like this: you can work at a startup for several years and hope to make a big windfall if you get in early enough to get a lot of shares and there is an acquisition or an IPO, or you can work at a FAANG company for 5 years and make a million dollars or more with none of the risk, better benefits, and probably better work-life balance.
Some people are passionate about startup culture, and they should probably go work at startups, but for everyone else startup work is becoming an increasingly larger sacrifice.