IME the vast majority of startups actually pay terribly, because they can lure a bunch of inexperienced people in with the prospect of making buck in the longer term. I'm sure there are startups which pay well, but I suspect they are a small minority, working on things which are even less likely than normal to become a unicorn.
I don’t think the above commenter was referring to startups. It’s very easy to fall into the though that all tech companies are either FAANGS, Unicorns or Startups.
The vast majority of tech companies are ones you’ve probably never heard of. They don’t pay spectacularly like the SV shops but they don’t underpay either.
I currently work for an digital agency in Ohio. You probably have never heard of them and you likely never will. They don’t make headlines but they’ve chugged along for over a decade, making a healthy business out of building applications for local companies in Ohio as well as some larger companies you have definitely heard of.
Companies like these are the majority, but you never hear about them because the media is focused on a few select companies, mostly consumer tech, that everyone’s heard of and generate headlines.
