Why would you join a startup?

I feel great - shortly after I wrote my last post about KVM and Xen, News.com covered the story in greater detail. I recently read a great article in the CIO magazine which set me thinking about the reasons I enjoy working at startups.

Based on my research, I found the most common reasons given by startup employees as -

1. Make Money - I'd like to build a successful company and cash out
2. Be King - I got tired of working for someone else; thought I'd start my own company.
3. Don't fit - I lost the appetite to work in a big company.
   

I have come across other reasons also, including the inability to secure a promotion or a raise. I'd venture to guess that angst caused by such a failure is often exacerbated because the feedback/review mechanism never gave the employee a reason to suspect that they were not performing. This point is brilliantly made in the manhattan effect article in the CIO magazine. In his article, Jerry Gregoire makes the point that "Depending on the nature of your business or geography or whatever, it might be pretty tough to get meaningful feedback from your customers, but your managers and employees are a different story. If you're not getting meaningful feedback from them, there's no point in spending a lot of time wondering why. The reason is you."

Thinking about this made me realize that one of the things that I really enjoy at Solidcore is the fact that I get real-time feedback about my performance. I feel great when I head to work every morning because I know that I work at a real meritocracy. Do you?