Hrm, the parallel feels really forced to me. You can invest money in multiple startups at the same time, to hedge your bets. You can't do that with your time if you plan on working full-time.
Its not even about hedging but about diversification. If you are in a position where you can't diversify fully, you should require a higher return on investment in order to take on the risk.
For example. If you could bet on a coin flip 100k times at $1 a bet, you might be willing to accept getting paid $1.01 per win. But if you had to bet $100k on a single coin flip, you would likely need the payout to be much greater before you were willing to take the bet.
Both are viable strategies. You diversify when you spend time working for startups across different sectors in the hope that some might succeed in their own area. You hedge when you work for several competitors in the same area in the hope that one of them will win in the end.
Considering how long you would have to stay to get anything from an equity event (4-8 yrs?) you realistically can't work for 10 startups. If you luck out and work for one that does have some success, you will probably find that, unlike a VC, you don't have "2X preferences" or an anti-dilution arrangement so you get nothing or next to nothing.
In the meantime you may have traded your youth for magic beans - putting off things like getting a house, a girlfriend, etc because you are working long hours for sub-market pay. That is the real tragedy.
OiNG|7 years ago
For example. If you could bet on a coin flip 100k times at $1 a bet, you might be willing to accept getting paid $1.01 per win. But if you had to bet $100k on a single coin flip, you would likely need the payout to be much greater before you were willing to take the bet.
arachnids|7 years ago
Harj|7 years ago
chrisbennet|7 years ago
In the meantime you may have traded your youth for magic beans - putting off things like getting a house, a girlfriend, etc because you are working long hours for sub-market pay. That is the real tragedy.