For engineers who are interested in personal and professional growth it's ultimately about optimizing for learning. A business in which a lot rests on your shoulders is an excellent environment to grow and learn, at least for a certain type of people. Others enjoy the pace and the perceived predictability/stability of larger teams.
If your priorities are to grow yourself as fast as humanly possible (remember Derek Sivers and "There is no speed limit.") for a certain planned period of time and you're ok with all of the sacrifices that the choice will entail (no free time, no weekends, infinitesimal personal life, continuous ups and downs), then I believe you're better off on your own, surrounded by very smart people working in very smart and fast-paced teams. I do believe that the overhead of working at a large firm where as a new developer you might spend 50% of your schedule in meetings is absolutely devastating to your career, unless your career is to steadily climb the management chain, in which case you'll probably do fine and don't need this kind of advice. I've had a very similar experience to aaronbrethorst at MS and definitely gained a lot from the ride.
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For engineers who are interested in personal and professional growth it's ultimately about optimizing for learning. A business in which a lot rests on your shoulders is an excellent environment to grow and learn, at least for a certain type of people. Others enjoy the pace and the perceived predictability/stability of larger teams.
If your priorities are to grow yourself as fast as humanly possible (remember Derek Sivers and "There is no speed limit.") for a certain planned period of time and you're ok with all of the sacrifices that the choice will entail (no free time, no weekends, infinitesimal personal life, continuous ups and downs), then I believe you're better off on your own, surrounded by very smart people working in very smart and fast-paced teams. I do believe that the overhead of working at a large firm where as a new developer you might spend 50% of your schedule in meetings is absolutely devastating to your career, unless your career is to steadily climb the management chain, in which case you'll probably do fine and don't need this kind of advice. I've had a very similar experience to aaronbrethorst at MS and definitely gained a lot from the ride.