Your odds of making money are much better with a young-ish but publicly traded company than with a startup. Even if a startup is successful, you won't see much money unless you were one of the founders or early investors. There's a million ways the stock options that early employees get can be made worthless (or worth-little).
I have BEEN one of the founders, and still didn't make any money off the ultimate sale. There are far too many games with share classes, VC-funded bridge loans, and preferred investor incentives. The only way to win is to not play the game.
