Anyone who is 32+ and working in startups?

Worked in a startup post 30. Stability and peace of mind have become more and more important as ive gotten older.

Was burnt out, and realised that the quote - "you're killing yourself for a company that will put out a replacement hiring notification if you dropped dead" - was indeed real when i saw it happen first hand during and post COVID. Quit and joined a corporate, though i can't say things are much better here too.

Have been trying to prioritise family and self. Post 30. Have not been entirely successful at it. Always on the lookout for some chill org where I'll get some time for myself.

32+ here. Have majorly worked in large MNCs all through my career and decided to switch to startups during peak COVID. It was a pure gamble I went for since I did not have any commitments in life, and it was totally worth it - both in terms of the career exposure and financial aspects.

The experience of building something 0 to 1 getting my hands dirty was something else! Three years into it now and I look forward to going to work almost every morning.

Maybe I should have considered startups at a much earlier stage in my life. That would be my only regret.

The startups I and my flatmates have worked with have had a sour experience. They had no regard for people or processes. Everything is a jugaad. First principles thinking is abused.

Never thought about corporate. Did consulting and then moved to the early stage side of things. Operator or investor experience has been the most helpful in the following ways:

1. Enables curiosity and first principles thinking
2. Fantastic sales experience + learning (the hard way though) how to build a network
3. Widens your gaze to understand that you can pick up or learn about new things and sectors which otherwise seemed impossible

Overall I would say the well rounded development I experienced is at a whole other level. However, this is not to say anything negative about corporate life, this is a combination of my interest and experience. I am sure others with corporate experience would have a different perspective, which I would love to learn about as well.b

MNCs rarely even interviewed me. Startups was mostly my only choice, didn't want to chase MNCs either because startup/sme jobs were plenty in the market.

I do wonder how working at good MNCs would have changed my life for better or worse, but I'm pretty happy with my startup and side gigs so far.