I can't speak for the FAANG side, but I imagine based on resources like https://staffeng.com/guides that it can be a huge social/political effort to ascend to staff/principal levels within a FAANG. By comparison, if you're an early employee at a startup, if you're smart and put in the work, if the startup has significant growth, and if you stick around for several years, growing into this sort of role is practically automatic. (I realize that was a lot of "if"s for "automatic".)
By that point, you can go several ways. You may see an exit on the horizon and decide to stick it out. The startup could recognize the market for your skills and give you a salary that's in the ballpark of FAANG, or they can provide other compensating benefits more tailored to your personal desires. You could have experience and network connections to create your own startup. Or you could "exit yourself" to a high-level FAANG role for a huge pay raise, while still holding onto that early startup equity.
Again, I'm talking about joining a startup at early stages here, like first half dozen engineers, first couple dozen employees overall. Of course, there's a lot more risk in that approach, but there are also unique benefits. You'll have a huge hand in helping to shape the culture to be the sort of place you like to work.
That's the real selling point of startups; they'll never compete with FAANGs on a monetary basis, even in rather successful exits. A "generous" 0.5% equity slice of even $1B is $5MM, and it will likely take at least 10 years to get there. Add that to maybe another $2MM in salary and bonuses earned over that time, and you're looking at $7MM in total compensation for 10 years at a successful startup.
If you start at about $250K in total comp at FAANG and progress roughly linearly to $800K by year 10, you're looking at $5.25MM in total comp, without having to bet on a startup having a $1B exit. But then again, it's not guaranteed that you'll climb to those lofty $800K positions at FAANG.
By that point, you can go several ways. You may see an exit on the horizon and decide to stick it out. The startup could recognize the market for your skills and give you a salary that's in the ballpark of FAANG, or they can provide other compensating benefits more tailored to your personal desires. You could have experience and network connections to create your own startup. Or you could "exit yourself" to a high-level FAANG role for a huge pay raise, while still holding onto that early startup equity.
Again, I'm talking about joining a startup at early stages here, like first half dozen engineers, first couple dozen employees overall. Of course, there's a lot more risk in that approach, but there are also unique benefits. You'll have a huge hand in helping to shape the culture to be the sort of place you like to work.
That's the real selling point of startups; they'll never compete with FAANGs on a monetary basis, even in rather successful exits. A "generous" 0.5% equity slice of even $1B is $5MM, and it will likely take at least 10 years to get there. Add that to maybe another $2MM in salary and bonuses earned over that time, and you're looking at $7MM in total compensation for 10 years at a successful startup.
If you start at about $250K in total comp at FAANG and progress roughly linearly to $800K by year 10, you're looking at $5.25MM in total comp, without having to bet on a startup having a $1B exit. But then again, it's not guaranteed that you'll climb to those lofty $800K positions at FAANG.