I joined my company as the first employee. I was the co-founder of other start-ups before joining my latest company and had hired "first employees" myself. So I understood the difference and knew what I was getting myself into. IMO, the choice depends on your personality, what you like to do, and where you are in your life.
There are two key factors that made me accept the first employee offer.
1. As a co-founder you will need to take part in some of the administrative part of the company. Even if another one of the founders is taking care of the operations, there will always be things like board meetings, financing, taxes, etc. As a co-founder it has always been my opinion that you need to be interested in the operations. It's your duty to be informed as a co-founder.
2. Family. When I accepted my position I was a point in my life where I had two small children and a wife that wanted to pursue her own career. As a first employee I had the opportunity to "request" that my office hours were 9 to 5. It's not that I worked only 8 hours but that I didn't feel obliged to be in the office first and be the last to leave. My family was more important to me then being a co-founder.
I'm currently the CTO of the company (360pi.com) I joined as the first employee. For me it was a great decision at the time. I spent more time with my wife and children, leaned a ton of new technologies, made lots of great friends and still got to live the life of a start-up.
I think each individual has to make their own decision and that there's no one clear answer...
There are two key factors that made me accept the first employee offer.
1. As a co-founder you will need to take part in some of the administrative part of the company. Even if another one of the founders is taking care of the operations, there will always be things like board meetings, financing, taxes, etc. As a co-founder it has always been my opinion that you need to be interested in the operations. It's your duty to be informed as a co-founder.
2. Family. When I accepted my position I was a point in my life where I had two small children and a wife that wanted to pursue her own career. As a first employee I had the opportunity to "request" that my office hours were 9 to 5. It's not that I worked only 8 hours but that I didn't feel obliged to be in the office first and be the last to leave. My family was more important to me then being a co-founder.
I'm currently the CTO of the company (360pi.com) I joined as the first employee. For me it was a great decision at the time. I spent more time with my wife and children, leaned a ton of new technologies, made lots of great friends and still got to live the life of a start-up.
I think each individual has to make their own decision and that there's no one clear answer...