Joining a startup is always risky, but some companies are better bets than others.
If you pick well, you could be financially set for life.
If we could have a pile of stock options in any company right now (besides Business Insider), here's who we'd pick.
BuzzFeed
Location: New York
What it is: Media company that produces viral content, led by Jonah Peretti, Ben Smith and Jon Steinberg.
Date founded: 2006
Company size: 180 employees
Financing: $43.5 million
Why it's a good bet: BuzzFeed is monetizing its content very well, even on mobile devices, which is important as people consume more on the go. Its ads actually work better on mobile devices than they do on desktops.
Steinberg is creating high engagement placements for advertisers without running a single banner ad, and Peretti has become a world expert in producing viral content.
It's growing quickly with 40 million monthly unique visitors, and investors are so excited about BuzzFeed they think it could become a billion-dollar digital brand. Its current valuation is about $200 million, so there's still an opportunity to join the company and grow with it.
Stripe
Location: California
What it is: Developer-friendly payment company that makes it easy to accept payments on any website
Date founded: 2010
Financing: $38 million from Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst Partners, Peter Thiel, Chris Dixon, Elad Gil, Aaron Levie, Redpoint Ventures
Why it's a good bet: Stripe is still small in terms of employees, but it's apparently generating a ton of revenue. It has signed on some well-known clients including 10gen, Pebble, Livestream, Foursquare, Fast Company and Sugar Inc.
(Full disclosure: Business Insider uses Stripe for its subscription research product).
GitHub
Location: San Francisco, CA
What it is: Social network for programmers so they can collaborate on code
Date founded: 2008
Company size: 143 employees
Financing: $100 million from Andreessen Horowitz
Why it's a good bet: GitHub bootstrapped itself to profitability until the Andreessen round late last year. It's become the go-to enterprise company for developers. A lot of development teams at startups use it to work on company code together and it has nearly 2 million registered users. The company is valued at about $750 million and it's only just getting started.
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